61. Fragile States, Fragile Lives
- Author:
- Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- For decades, child marriage has been viewed as an unfortunate but inevitable social ill. Few policy-makers have considered its eradication feasible given how entrenched the practice is across the globe: one in three girls worldwide marry before the age of eighteen and one in nine girls marry before the age of fifteen. The United Nations (UN) estimates that if current trends continue, in the next decade 142 million girls globally will become brides before they turn eighteen. The implications are dire: research shows that child marriage both reinforces poverty and makes it harder to escape. The practice has curtailed advancement on Millennium Development Goals Four and Five-which call for a two-thirds reduction in the under-five mortality rate and a three-fourths reduction in maternal deaths by 2015, respectively-and has undermined the goal of achieving universal primary education.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Human Welfare, Fragile/Failed State, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United Nations