In 2010, 13.5 million girls were married before they turned 18. If we do nothing, by 2030 an estimated 15.4 million girls a year will marry as children.
In the developing world, one in seven girls is married before her 15th birthday and some child brides are as young as eight or nine.
Neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers, these girls are at far greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence. With little access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty.
Munira Sha'ban, Jordan's celebrated midwife (centre), with UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin and UNFPA Director Dianne Stewart. Photo credit: UNFPA/Omar Kasrawi
An interview with Jordan’s famous ‘Mama Munira’
UNITED NATIONS, New York – Next year, Munira Sha’ban will celebrate her 50th year working as a nurse and midwife. Her career has taken her all over the world, to the halls of the United Nations, and, through a televised health show, into the homes of thousands of Jordanian families.
She has served women and families from Jordan, Iraq, Palestine and Syria. And over the decades, she has seen the steady advancement of human rights come to some of the most vulnerable women and girls. As a result, she has watched their health and prospects improve.
She has also played a key role in promoting this progress. As a trusted health adviser, she offers counselling and information to improve women’s and girls’ health and circumstances.
Still, she says, there is much more work to be done.
Below is a condensed, edited interview with Ms. Sha’ban about how women’s health and rights have changed, and what remains to be done.
Gender? Gender? Women & Girls? Gender? Gender?
“Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration,” the world’s most comprehensive tally to date of migrant fatalities across land and sea.
For many of the 232 million people around the world who live outside their country of birth today, migration means the opportunity for a better life for themselves and their families. Yet, for many others, the search for such an opportunity comes at an extremely high cost, as they face unimaginable and often fatal dangers along their journeys.....
The paradox is that at a time when one in seven people around the world are migrants in one form or another, we are seeing a harsh response to migration in the developed world. Limited opportunities for safe and regular migration drives would-be migrants into the hands of smugglers, feeding an unscrupulous trade that threatens the lives of desparate people. We need to put an end to this cycle.....
Fatal journeys: Tracking lives lost during migration - Report
Извор: WUNRN – 29.09.2014
Nana shakes the hand of Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird after speaking at a high-level panel on child marriage. Photo credit: Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
UNITED NATIONS, New York – “When I was age 16, my father wanted me to marry a 25-year-old man named Alhamza,” Nana told a room full of dignitaries and leaders at a high-level panel discussion on child marriage at the United Nations last week.
Child marriage is a human rights violation. The children involved – most often girls – are deprived of the right to choose when and whom to marry, one of the most fundamental and life-altering choices a person can make.
Yet it is all too common. In the Zinder Region of Niger, where Nana is from, about 70 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 are already married.
The toll of this abuse resonates throughout a girl’s life. Many girls are forced to drop out of school when they marry, because they are expected to tend to their husband’s homes. In Zinder, 89 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 are out of school.
Child marriage also often leads to adolescent pregnancy. Adolescents have higher rates of complications in pregnancy and childbirth. They therefore face higher rates of maternal mortality. In fact, pregnancy and childbirth are leading causes of death among older adolescents in developing countries. Adolescents also face higher rates of obstetric fistula, a devastating injury that can occur during an obstructed labour.
Извор: UNFPA – 29.09.2014
Report synopsis
In November 2013, a number of international agencies, donors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) committed to a Communiqué for a ‘Call to Action on Violence against Women and Girls in Emergencies’. As part of this, nine donors made initial commitments to ‘increase investment’ and ‘fund action’ to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in emergencies. Ten months later, on September 22nd 2014 at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a follow-up high-level will bring together those involved in the delivery of the commitments set out in the Communiqué, review progress, and map out the way forward for the year ahead.
To date, it has been hard to track donor spending on gender in emergencies. As we explored in this year’s Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report, data have been poor, prompting the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) to call for a gender marker “to assist in tracking the proportion of funds devoted to advancing gender equality”. In 2010, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) rolled out a gender marker for donors and agencies to use to track gender equality in humanitarian assistance. Coding is based on the extent to which: (i) a project has considered the needs of men and women equally; (ii) its activities respond equally to these needs; and (iii) the project has led to gender-related outcomes.
