Submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on Child, Early and Forced marriage February 2016 Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children, working in 120 countries through our members, programmes and partners. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Save the Children has a dual mandate as a development and humanitarian agency, covering issues such as health and nutrition, education, poverty, child protection and child rights governance. Save the Children considers child marriage a harmful practice that needs to be tackled through a rights-based and full spectrum approach that includes development and humanitarian contexts. This submission complements Save the Children’s previous submission (attached) to OHCHR in October 2015, which included an overview of existing programmes and strategies to end child marriage implemented by Save the Children in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Nepal, as well as programmes led by our office in Canada. I. Addressing the issue Save the Children aims to address child marriage across all of our core program areas, including education, health and child protection. We believe that only by addressing the root causes of child marriage such as gender inequality, poverty, – low levels of education will we be successful in ending child marriage. – We are, therefore, working to positively transform discriminatory social norms and institutions that perpetuate the harmful practice of child marriage. Save the Children encourages and facilitates child participation at all levels of our work to ensure both girls and boys are engaged in dialogue and advocacy to end child marriage and promote gender equality. Save the Children Canada Background Save the Children is currently implementing two projects on ending child marriage in Somaliland and Nigeria, both of which are funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). Save the Children Canada provides oversight to both projects and also
Submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on Child, Early and Forced marriage February 2016 Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children, working in 120 countries through our members, programmes and partners. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Save the Children has a dual mandate as a development and humanitarian agency, covering issues such as health and nutrition, education, poverty, child protection and child rights governance. Save the Children considers child marriage a harmful practice that needs to be tackled through a rights-based and full spectrum approach that includes development and humanitarian contexts. This submission complements Save the Children’s previous submission (attached) to OHCHR in October 2015, which included an overview of existing programmes and strategies to end child marriage implemented by Save the Children in Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Nepal, as well as programmes led by our office in Canada. I. Addressing the issue Save the Children aims to address child marriage across all of our core program areas, including education, health and child protection. We believe that only by addressing the root causes of child marriage – such as gender inequality, poverty, low levels of education – will we be successful in ending child marriage. We are, therefore, working to positively transform discriminatory social norms and institutions that perpetuate the harmful practice of child marriage. Save the Children encourages and facilitates child participation at all levels of our work to ensure both girls and boys are engaged in dialogue and advocacy to end child marriage and promote gender equality. Save the Children Canada Background Save the Children is currently implementing two projects on ending child marriage in Somaliland and Nigeria, both of which are funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). Save the Children Canada provides oversight to both projects and also
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