Child marriage constitutes a human rights violation, preventing girls from exercising their right to develop to their fullest potential, be protected from harmful practices, and participate fully in family, cultural, and social life, as stated by Convention of the Rights of the Child(link is external)(link is external) (CRC).
More than one-third of girls in developing countries are married before the age of 18 and one in nine are married before their fifteenth birthday. If current trends continue, 150 million girls will marry before the age of 18 over the next decade (ICRW, 2015(link is external)(link is external)(link is external)).
South Asia has the largest number of girls married as children (56%), followed by West and Central Africa (46%), Eastern and Southern Africa (38%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) (30%) (UNICEF, 2014(PDF file)(link is external)(link is external)(link is external)).
Causes, characteristics, and consequences of child marriage around the world:
