The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the fifth of which is "gender equity", namely: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.  (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are nine targets, the third of which is “Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation”.

● Current Situation

About the World

Child Marriage Decreased Worldwide

Child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child.

While the prevalence of child marriage has decreased worldwide – from one in four girls married a decade ago to approximately one in five today – the practice remains widespread. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 100 million girls were expected to marry before their eighteenth birthday in the next decade. Now, up to 10 million more girls will be at risk of becoming child brides as a result of the pandemic.

Text and photo source: unicef.org

About China

Regional Differences 

Photo source:sohu.com

The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China issued in 19980 stipulates that the minimum age for marriage is 20 for women and 22 for men. There are differences in the rate of early marriage among women in different regions and educational levels. In ethnic minorities and rural areas, the rate of early marriage is relatively higher. The difference between urban and rural areas is also obvious. The impact of education is also obvious, with the population of lower level of education having higher rate of early marriage.

Text source: 163.com

●  Cases

About the World

End Child Marriage Programme

In 2016, UNICEF, together with UNFPA, launched the Global Programme to End Child Marriage. Empowering young girls at risk of marriage or already in union, the programme reached more than 7.9 million adolescent girls with life-skills training and school attendance support over its first phase (2016–2019). Close to 40 million people, including key community influencers, engaged in dialogue and communication campaigns to support adolescent girls, or other efforts to end child marriage.

Text and photo source: unicef.org 

Msichana Empowerment Kuria 

Photo source: sina.com

Msichana Empowerment Kuria (MEK) is a young women-led, community-based organisation in Kuria East, Migori County, Kenya. Their mission is to empower girls through girlcentred approaches and programmes to end female genital mutilation and child marriage. "Msichana" is the Swahili word for "girl".

MEK believes that to end female genital mutilation and child marriage, uncut girls need to be empowered to say no, and that those who have experienced either practice should be able to choose not to put their own children through the same process.

Text source: unicef.org