Supporting Married Girls – Calling Attention to a Neglected Group – The Population Council (Nicole Haberland).

(Brief No. 3: Promoting Healthy, Safe and Productive Transitions to Adulthood, December 2007). In the next ten years, if current patterns continue, more than 100 million girls will marry before the age of 18, according to Population Council analyses of United Nations country data. Child marriage—any marriage that occurs before the age of 18—is considered a human rights violation by international convention.

Marriage transforms virtually all aspects of girls’ lives. Typically, girls who marry are moved from their familiar home and village, lose contact with friends, initiate sexual activity with someone they barely know, and soon become mothers. While existing data cannot definitively show causal links, the literature suggests that young age and/or young age at marriage may be independently correlated with low domestic authority, limited freedom of movement, and increased partner violence.