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Global campaign launched by the U.S. to stop child marriage
by Joseph Earnest October 11, 2012
Newscast Media WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the United States will join a campaign to stop child marriage by the year 2030. Clinton made the announcement before an audience of Girl Scouts, invited to the State Department in recognition of the International Day of the Girl, a U.N. commemoration set for October 11.
The secretary began began her remarks by describing a "very brave" Pakistani girl, Malala Yousufzai. She has achieved wide recognition for her assertion of girls' rights to education, but was shot October 9 in an attack by extremists opposed to the education of women. Clinton said, "Yesterday’s attack reminds us of the challenges that girls face, whether it’s poverty or marginalization or even violence, just for speaking out for their basic rights."
Each year, 10 million girls under 18 are forced into marriage, Clinton said, "which robs them of the opportunity to continue education, and it threatens health and traps them in lives of poverty."
The campaign "Girls Not Brides: the Global Partnership to End Child Marriage" is championed by The Elders, a group of internationally known leaders who work together for global peace and justice. South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu is chairman of the group, which includes former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
Tutu joined Clinton at the State Department for the event, speaking to the audience of girls with a mix of tenderness, admiration and inspiration.
"Without women the world faces perdition, destruction. We need you, we need you to save us," Tutu said.
"Dream of a different world, where every child has access to clean water, and every child has enough food to eat. We want to make poverty history; we want to make child marriage history," he added. Add Comments>>
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