The progress made in recent years is not enough, warns in a report published on Tuesday by UNICEF, which estimates that 19% of young women aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18 in 2022.
Marriages of underage girls are declining, but at a rate that will only eliminate this “violation of children’s rights” in 300 years, UNICEF deplores, worrying about a convergence of crises that could further reverse this trend.
“We have undoubtedly made progress in abandoning the practice of child marriage, particularly in the past decade. But this progress is not enough,” said Claudia Cappa, lead author of the report released on Tuesday.
According to Unicef estimates, 640 million girls and women today were married when they were under 18 years old. However, over the past 25 years, 68 million of these marriages have been averted.
Millions of children affected
In 1997, 25% of young women aged 20 to 24 had been married before the age of 18, 23% in 2012, 19% in 2022.
“At this rate, we would have to wait 300 years to eliminate child marriage,” commented Claudia Cappa, noting that these marriages mainly concern girls aged 12 to 17.
At the current rate, the number of girl child marriages is expected to still exceed 9 million per year in 2030 (compared to around 12 million today), according to Unicef, which estimates that a decline nearly 20 times faster is needed to reach the goal of eliminating this practice by the end of the decade.
The agency further fears that the convergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, conflict and the growing impacts of climate change “will reverse hard-won progress”.
Covid-19 could thus be responsible between 2020 and 2030 for 10 million additional underage marriages.
“The world is overrun with crises that add to other crises, destroying the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students and not brides,” the boss said in a statement. from Unicef Catherine Russell. Crises “that force families to seek a false sense of security” by marrying off their daughters.
“Although child marriage is a clear violation of children’s rights, it is often seen by families as a measure of ‘protection’ for girls, financial, social, and even physical protection,” the report notes. A way also to have one less mouth to feed. Moreover, it is in the richest families that progress is greatest.
