Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, is a global issue that affects approximately 650 million young women and girls across continents and cultures. In the U.S. over 200,000 children under the age of 18 were married between 2000 and 2015.
The UN75 Consultation on Child Marriage will discuss the issues around this human rights violation against children and young girls, as well as actions that can be taken to accelerate progress in the elimination of child marriage.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for global action to eliminate poverty, to protect our basic human rights to health, education, and security by 2030. Target 5.3 specifically calls for the elimination of the harmful practice of child marriage. Failure to act on this SDG, will compromise the 2030 agenda of gender equality, economic growth, and peace and security.
A policy advocate and attorney with experience in global health and human rights, Sarah Craven serves as the Director of the Washington Office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Prior, she held positions in the U.S. Department of State and the legislative staff to Senators Tim Wirth and Spark Matsunaga. Sarah also served as a policy advisor to CEDPA during the 1994 International Conference on Population and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.
Fraidy Reiss is the Founder and Executive Director of Unchained At Last, an organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the U.S. through direct services and advocacy. Internationally recognized as an expert, Fraidy has helped write legislation to end or reduce child marriage, and her writing on the topic has been published across the U.S. and beyond.