CHILD BRIDES

1. CHILD BRIDES Prof. Dr. Ayşe Akın Başkent University Medical Faculty, Public Health Department & Woman- Child Health and Family Planning Research and Implementation Center

2. Adolescence Childhood 10 19 0 Age 15 24 18 Youth Youngpeople 50 % of worldpopulation is undertheage of 25. 85% lives in devolopingcountries.

3. CURRENTLY THERE ARE OVER 60 MILLION CHILD BRIDES IN VARIOUS REGIONS OF THE WORLD • Childbridesareunfortunately the realityof the world and Turkey • It is theviolation of women’srights • Each year: • All over the world, 16 million girls gave births (over a hundred tousand of them take place in Turkey) • This year’s subject of World’s population day is announced by UNFPA as “adolescents’ pregnancies”

4. In reality, early and / or forced marriages, son preferences, dowry practices , berdel all based on similar grounds; • Which are: • Powerty • Patriarchal structure • Gender discrimination • Lack of education in society but especially the women’s lack of education • Low status of women (lack of education economical dependency etc.)

5. Right to Make Choice for Marriage and Family Building • Every person, male or female, has the right to choose when and whom to marry or not. • No one can be forced to marry for any reason. • No one can be forced to pursuean unwanted marriage or a marriage with an unwanted person.

6. Some Reasons behind early and forced marriages: • Economic reasons (bride price is seen as an income for the family) • Social belief that a woman must be protected by and belong to a man, that belief is perpetuated by patriarchal traditions and religious beliefs • “Honor”, as defined for women by some cultures ,also has a role to play in early marriages,since marriage is seen to be a method of keeping woman’s body under control • Role models also constitute a reason • There are women who are married off to take care of family members with disabilities or with chronic illness

7. Some Consequences of early marriages: • Early marriage, an obvious result of gender inequality, is one of the major obstacles before equal opportunities • Early marriages mean increased risk for phisical,emotional,verbal and sexual violence against women • Early marriages interrupt girls’ schooling /education, in their future life cannot benefit from employement opportunities • Early marriage means early motherhood in most cases. MMR for women between the ages of 15- 19 are four times higher than in older ages • Early pregnancy increases risks of miscarriage and stillbirth and prematur birth

8. International Regulations: • International documents consider “child marriage” as a human rights violation (ie.Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948) • Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) "States Parties in any condition shall protect children against any forms of exploitation, that could damage the well-being of children." • CEDAW (1979) (women should have the same rights as men in terms of voluntarily choose a spouse and marry) • Child marriage is the violation of human rights (Universal Convention on Human Rights (item16) • According to this item “marriage act can only be made by the free and complete consent of the couples • Child marriage is also the violation of several items of the “Convention on Rights of the Child”

9. Due to early marriages; In developing countries nearly 82 million young girls stop their education. • Most of the 16 million adolescents who give birth each year, are facing serious health consequencies due to pregnancy complications. • Early pregnancies:Maternal death in young women aged between 15-19 four times more than women in their early twenties

10. According to the sociologists, population in developmental stage(age between 14-19) is defined as socially immature. • Individuals in this age group, are considered as they are insufficient in adapting to the necessary social roles and have not completed their social development. • Therefore, the girls marriedin this age range break away from their friends , loose their self confidence and cannot participate in community activities after marriage.

11. In Early Marriages; • Girlsare imprisoned a life long dependent onhusband by her ownfamily. • Moreover, families considertheseunacceptable social, medical and legal factsas“normal” • As child marriages usually take place in the form of unlawful marriages,child brides, deprive of civil rights, that is gained legal marriage. • Child brides who failed to continuetheireducation because of marriage, and thus deprived of the right to education, arealsodeprived of right to work, and participation in production. • Thissituationcausesthe decline in the status of women in society, and beingexposed to more intense genderdiscrimination.

12. Some Information / Data on Child Brides in Turkey; • 15.5% according to General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs • General Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs doesn’t register the early marriages based on religious wedding. • Estimation of Rate of child brides in Turkey today: 30 - 35% • In Turkey, one of every three married womenhad child marriage • According to Turkey – DHS, 2008 , age of marriage for girls decreased to 12

13. EARLY MARRIAGES The definition of the concept of child bride changesaccording to the law in Turkish legal system. Girls under the age of 17, according to the Turkish Civil Code, Girls under the age of 18, according to the Law on Child Protection, Girls under the age of 15, according to the Turkish Penal Code, are treated as child brides. Thisinconsistency between the lawscausestheinefficiency in fightingagainsttheearlymarriages of thegirlsfromtraditionalfamilies

14. Some findings from the field study of the 2010-2011 carried out by Flying Broom-Uçan Süpürge-Turkey) • Women and girls are not aware of their rights but demand to know them • Girls demand that awareness raising campaigns to prevent early and forced marriages should target families , with a spesific focus on the father/ men • There is lack of awareness in many public officials as well as local governments. • Women who experience early marriage do not want their daughters to experience.These women tend to say ‘women should get married after the age of 25’; ‘When they have a job’; Some don’t even want their daughter to get married in the first place.

15. Some activities to fight against early marriages in Turkey • A Sub Commission was established at the Turkish National Grand Assembly to investigate the causes and consequences of early marriages • GD of the Status of Woman is planning to carry out a nationwide study on early marriages in Turkey • Several research and advocacy activities have been carried out by the University Research and ImplementationCenters as well as by the NGOs in Turkey

16. According to physicians, the age range 14-21 is the maturation period of reproguctive system . The girls in this age range have not completed reproductive and sexual development yet. • Thus, after marriage, married girls in this age range may have serious health problems such as, inability to conceive, miscarriage, premature birth, difficult labor, increased BP in pregnancy, and cervical cancer • Girls who are not ready to have sex biologically and find themselves in sexual actsby childmarriage, may have several sexual and reproductive disease, and also permanent psychological problems. • Thus, it is not sociologically and medically acceptable to make girls marry before the age of eighteen for any reason. • .

17. Some unwanted consequences of adolescent pregnancies/births: • Malnutrition, anemia • Adolescent mother may ignore or injure herself or her • baby. • As development of the pelvis completed at 20-22 years of • age, difficult birth in adolescent pregnancies are common. • "Pregnancy poisoning", called "toxemia", "eclampsia“ is •      more frequent. • Miscarriage, stillbirth • Excessive bleeding, • Premature birth and low birth weight infants are more • common • Compared to births aged 20-24, Pregnancy and • childbirth-related deaths (maternal mortality) in the age • group 15-16 are 3-4 times greater.

18. Problems in adolescent mothers and their babies: Adolescent Mother Their Babies

19. According to 2008 DHS Turkey • 20.9 % of women aged 15-19 years, illiterate / didn’t finished primary school • 9.6% of women aged 15-19 years are married • 36,5% of women age of 15-19had one live birth, 3,7% had two live births, 0,6% had three live births. • Contraceptive method usage in this age group: • Any method: 40.2 • Any modern method: 17.6

20. Distribution of mothers or pregnant women aged 15-19 years according to some characteristics (2008 – DHS Turkey)

21. If the current trend is continued during the next decade there will be 142 million child brides in the world , which means 14.2 milion child brides per year

22. Early marriages, berdel, son preference, are serious burden on girls not only the mental health of the women but physical and social health as well • Although all those practices are violation of women's human rights. • Unfortunatelly in many societies all those are accepted as "normal”

23. SOLUTION WE SHOULD GIVE HER A CHANCE !!

24. The mismatch / discrepancies between laws in Turkey should be eliminated and the marriage of girls beforecompletingtheage of 18 should be prohibited. • Raiseawareness in thecommunity on “earlymarriagesaretheviolation of humanrights” • Ensuring Gender Equality • Empoweringwoman and raising the • Status of Women • ChangingSocialStructure of the • community • PREVENTION OF POVERTY

25. Negative cultural values legitimized by misinterpretation of religious and traditional codes, must be discarded. • Liquidation of negative cultural values is possible by placing the values based on the laws, civilized social orders, scientific approaches, instead of only religious and traditional morality, in the society. • Decisionmakers / policy makers have not only an important role to play on this issue but also obligations to full fill.

26. Solution continue….. The most effective actions / strategies; • Integrating gender perspective into main plans, programs, laws and regulations of the country (gender mainstreaming-GEM) • GEM, should be considered in the preparation phase of legislations, • To achieve this, decision-makers must have a "gender sensitive perspective” • Words should be translated into actions to ensure the implementation of the laws and regulations.