The experts, including UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, stressed in a joint-statement that forced early marriages should be criminalized.Geneva (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) - A group of United Nations human rights experts on Thursday, the first UN International Day on the Girl Child, urged countries to increase the age of marriage to 18 for girls and boys without exception and adopt urgent measures to prevent child marriage.
The experts, including UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children, stressed in a joint-statement that forced early marriages should be criminalized.
"Girls who are victims of servile marriages experience domestic servitude, sexual slavery and suffer from violations to their right to health, education, non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence," said the statement.
UN statistics showed that every year an estimate of 10 million girls are married before they reach 18. Globally, 34 percent young women aged 20 to 24, approximately 70 million, were married before 18.
If present trends continue, the number of girls who will marry by the age of 18 will climb towards 150 million in the next decade, according to UN.
In 1994, the UN Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women issued a non-binding recommendation that countries adopt a minimum age for marriage of 18 years for both sexes.
To date, 113 countries have established 18 years as the minimum age for girls while 147 countries have established 18 years for boys, according to the UN Children`s Fund.
The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges confronting girls and to promote girls` empowerment and the fulfillment of their rights. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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