UMBC Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act Paper 7 pg paper not including cover page and refernces double spaced apa style policy analy

UMBC Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act Paper 7 pg paper not including cover page and refernces

double spaced

apa style

policy analysis of congress enacted bill H.R. 2140: Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act.

paper should discuss 1. The social problem addressed by the policy

2. The policy objectives, value premises, expectations, and target populations

3. Effects of the policy

4. Implications of the policy

5. Alternative policies

What are the social issues/problems? Was an overview of the history of the social problem? Was the social problem discussed assessing the constitutionality and civil rights implications of the social problem? Were any social constructs identified with the social problems?

Was the Theory of Social Problems and Social Policies used to highlight their identified social problem in context of a need to develop a new social policy or reassess an existing social policy

Was the social policy analysis framework used throughout the paper? Were the policy objectives and expectations presented? Were direct and indirect targets of the policy presented?

Did they correctly analyze the social policy? Were the underlying social values and political ideologies of the social policy presented?

Were the intended and unintended effects of the policy discussed?

Were short-range and long-range effects discussed? Was their evidenced-based scholarly sources used to validate their identified social problem and social policy?

Were social justice implications for human services profession discussed? What recommendations were made to the human services profession that advocated for humane and just treatment, services, and appropriations for the social problem the social policy sought to address?

Were alternatives to the policy presented that promoted equitable economic, political and social rights and opportunities for everyone?

Were reliable and evidence-based scholarly sources used to discuss implications and alternatives effectively? IIB
116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2140
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE 11, 2019
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
AN ACT
To prevent child marriage in refugee settlements
administered by the United Nations, and for other purposes.
1
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
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2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
2
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Child Mar-
3 riage in Displaced Populations Act’’.
4
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
5
Congress finds the following:
6
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7
(1) According to UNICEF, 12 million girls
marry before the age of 18 every year.
8
(2) Early marriage denies children, especially
9
girls, their right to make vital decisions about their
10
well-being, including relating to their health, family,
11
and career. Child brides are less likely to finish their
12
education, and are at higher risk for abuse, con-
13
tracting HIV, and dying while pregnant or giving
14
birth.
15
(3) Child marriage also imposes substantial eco-
16
nomic costs to developing countries, impeding devel-
17
opment and prosperity gains.
18
(4) Displaced populations are particularly vul-
19
nerable to child marriage, in communities where pov-
20
erty, instability, and displacement put pressure on
21
families to marry children, particularly young girls,
22
off at a young age.
23
(5) One United Nations (UN) study found that
24
child marriage rates were 4 times higher among dis-
25
placed Syrian refugees than among Syrians before
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1
the crisis. This indicates that displacement, insta-
2
bility, and poverty are driving child marriages.
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3
(6)
United
Nations
agencies,
4
UNICEF and UNHCR, have acknowledged the dan-
5
gers of child marriage and taken steps to address its
6
risk in the populations they serve.
7
(7) The UN Joint Program on Child Marriage
8
supports this work by building the resilience of pop-
9
ulations to indirectly prevent child marriage and by
10
generating new data and evidence on the prevalence
11
of child marriage in humanitarian and fragile set-
12
tings. For example, in Uganda, the UN Joint Pro-
13
gram on Child Marriage helped 27,000 adolescent
14
girls strengthen critical skills through school clubs
15
and Go Back to School campaigns, as well as life-
16
skills and financial literacy training.
17
(8) After the UN Joint Program on Child Mar-
18
riage identified Yemen as one of its focus countries,
19
65,000 people, of whom 45,000 are adolescents,
20
were reached with awareness raising activities on the
21
harms of child marriage in 2018 alone. As a result,
22
local council representatives, elders, and community
23
leaders from six districts signed a pledge to support
24
advocacy efforts to end child marriage.
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1
SEC. 3. PREVENTING CHILD MARRIAGE IN DISPLACED POP-
2
3
ULATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall direct the
4 United States Permanent Representative to the United
5 Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United
6 States at the United Nations to call for an adoption of
7 an agreed-upon definition of ‘‘child marriage’’ across
8 United Nations agencies.
9
(b) STRATEGY.—The President shall direct the
10 United States Permanent Representative to the United
11 Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United
12 States at the United Nations to call for the development
13 of a comprehensive strategy to address child marriage in
14 refugee settlements administered by the United Nations.
15 Such strategy should include the following:
16
(1) A mandate to regularly collect and report
17
data related to the number of known or suspected
18
child marriages taking place inside each such settle-
19
ment.
20
(2) Protocols for United Nations personnel re-
21
garding prevention and monitoring of child mar-
22
riages inside each such settlement.
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23
24
(3) A description of United Nations programs
administered at such settlements that include—
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1
(A) physical, mental, and emotional reha-
2
bilitation and support to children who have ex-
3
tricated themselves from child marriage; and
4
(B) alternatives to child marriage, such as
5
education initiatives.
6
(4) Protocols regarding how United Nations
7
personnel should—
8
(A) report adults participating in illegal
9
child marriages in each such settlement; and
10
(B) monitor the prosecution of such adults
11
by the authorities of the country in which the
12
settlement at issue is located.
13
(c) RESEARCH.—The President shall direct the
14 United States Permanent Representative to the United
15 Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United
16 States at the United Nations to advocate for the United
17 Nations and its appropriate agencies to include, as appro18 priate, in all of its research into child marriage the rela19 tionship between child marriage and violence against girls,
20 including young children and infants.
21
(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
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(1) CHILD
MARRIAGE.—The
term ‘‘child mar-
23
riage’’ means a formal marriage or informal union
24
involving at least one person younger than age 18.
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1
(2) ILLEGAL
CHILD MARRIAGE.—The
term ‘‘il-
2
legal child marriage’’ means a child marriage that is
3
illegal under the laws of the country in which the
4
child marriage occurs.
Passed the House of Representatives June 10, 2019.
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Attest:
CHERYL L. JOHNSON,
Clerk.
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JOURNAL OF GENDER, INFORMATION AND
DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA (JGIDA)
Volume 6, Numbers 1 & 2, 2017
Pp 73-94
Girls not Brides: Ending Child Marriage
in Nigeria
Grace Atim
Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja.
greiz_k@yahoo.com
Abstract
Birth, marriage and death are the standard trio of key events in most people‘s
lives. But only one marriage is a matter of choice. The right to exercise that
choice was recognized as a principle of law even in Roman times and has long
been established in international human rights instruments. Yet in Nigeria,
many girls, enter marriage without any chance of exercising their right to
choose. Some are forced into marriage at a very early age. Others are simply too
young to make an informed decision about their marriage partner or about the
implications of marriage itself. They may have given what passes for ?consent‘
in the eyes of custom or the law, but in reality, consent to their binding union
has been made by others on their behalf. The assumption is that once a girl is
married, she has become a woman even if she is only 12. While the age of
marriage is generally on the rise, early marriage of girl below the age of 18 is still
widely practiced in Nigeria. While early marriage takes many different forms
and has various causes, one issue is paramount. Early marriage is a violation of
human rights. The right to free and full consent to a marriage is recognized in
the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and in many
subsequent human rights instruments and consent that cannot be ?free and full‘
when at least one partner is very immature. For girls, the paper revealed that
early marriage has profound physical, intellectual, psychological and emotional
impacts, cutting off educational opportunity and chances of personal growth.
For girls, in addition, it will almost certainly mean premature pregnancy and
childbearing, and is likely to lead to a lifetime of domestic and sexual
73
Girls not Brides: Ending Child Marriage …
subservience over which they have no control. Yet many societies, primarily in
northern Nigeria, continue to support the idea that girls should marry at or
soon after puberty. Parents and heads of families make marital choices for
daughters and sons with little regard for the personal implications. Rather, they
look upon marriage as a family building strategy, an economic arrangement or a
way to protect girls from unwelcome sexual advances. Therefore, the paper
recommended that the formation of partnerships is a strategy that should be
employed so that it will increases the chances of success in addressing this
problem. To end the practice of early marriage, resources must be mobilized at
all levels, within a coordinated and cooperative structure. All actors have a role
to play families, communities, health providers, education services, religious
leaders, local and national government, and international organizations. NGOs
can provide valuable lessons from the field, and offer a means of establishing
new initiatives.
Keywords: Girls, Brides, Child Marriage, Forced, Right violation
Introduction
Women constitute about half ( 49% ) of the population of the Nigerian
state (Nigeria Demographics profile 2016) and know to play vital roles as
mothers, producers, managers, community developers/organizers among
others. Their contribution to the social and economic development of
societies is also more than half as compared to that of men by virtue of
their dual roles in the productive and reproductive spheres. Yet their
participation in formal and informal structures and process, where
decisions regarding the use of societal resources generated by both men
and women are made, remains insignificant. The Nigerian society has
been patriarchal in nature which is a major feature of a traditional society
(Aina, 1998) in Makama (2013). It is structure of a set of social relations
with material base which enables men dominated women (Stacey;
Kramarea, 1992; Lerner, 1986). It is a system of social stratification and
differentiation on the basis of sex, which provides materials advantages
to males while simultaneously placing severe constraints on the roles and
activities of females. According to Makema (2013), the patriarchal society
sets the parameters for women‘s structurally unequal position in families
and markets by condoning gender differential terms in inheritance rights
and legal adulthood, by tacitly condoning domestic and sexual violence
and sanctioning differential wages for equal or comparable work.
Tradition, culture and religion have dictated men and women
74
Grace Atim / JGIDA, Vol. 6, Numbers 1 & 2, pp 73-94
relationship for centuries and entrenched male domination into the
structure of social organization and institution at all levels of leadership.
According to Salaam (2003), patriarchy justifies the marginalization of
women in education, economy, labour market, politics, business, family,
domestic matters, inheritance and even marriage.
According to Population Action International (2013), one out of
every three girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18
and one in nine is married before age 15. In addition to falling victim to
early marriage, these girls are typically from rural areas and have little
wealth or education. It is estimated that in the next 10 years,
approximately 14 million child marriages will occur each year in
developing countries (UNFPA, (2013).On the occasion of the 2014 U.S.
to Africa Leaders‘ Summit, sexual and reproductive health have barely
made the agenda despite their importance to unlocking women‘s and the
continent‘s potential. In the 50 African countries invited to the Summit
to discuss investing in the next generation, roughly one-third of girls are
married before age 18. Global advocacy efforts and last month‘s Girls‘
Summit have brought attention to the issue of child marriage, but few
have focused on providing child brides with reproductive and sexual
health care. This is particularly true for those under age 15, whose needs
are poorly understood due to lack of data. The African and American
leaders gathered this week must place sexual and reproductive health and
rights at the forefront of the agenda and address the ramifications of
child marriage for girls and for the continent‘s future. The US to Africa
Leader Summit asserted that:
We challenge these leaders to hear the voices of their female citizens
and heed the call to end child marriage and provide women and girls
with the health care need. In fact, the underlying causes of early
marriage are in African countries many, which include poverty, parental
desire to prevent sexual relations outside marriage and the fear of rape,
a lack of educational or employment opportunities for girls, and
traditional notions of the primary role of women and girls as wives and
mothers (UNICEF, 2008:1).
In Nigeria, the UNFPA (2005) Fact Sheet posts that the child
marriage prevalence rate is 88%. According to The News Times (2008)
Northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the
world. According to the British Council in Nigeria, more than half of
75
Girls not Brides: Ending Child Marriage …
Nigerian women in the North are married by the age of 16 and are
expected to give birth to a child during the first year of marriage (UK,
2012). The Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2008) reported the
median age of marriage for 15 to 19 year olds in the Northeast to be 15.9
and in the Northwest to be 15.7. The News Times (2012) reports that
some girls in northern Nigeria are married by the age of 12. Despite the
pronounced of relevant International Human Rights Instruments and
Child Marriage include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) (1948), the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age
for Marriage and Registration of Marriages (1964), African Charter on
the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990), and the Convention on the
Rights the Child, yet issues of girl‘s child is inconsiderable. Therefore, it
is imperative for the paper to examine girls not brides: Ending child
marriage in Nigeria.
Conceptual Clarification
It is imperative at this point to attempt a conceptual clarification of the
concept in this work to give it a theoretical grounding required for the
clear and logical understanding of the issues and positions canvassed in
this paper.
Child Marriage: Early marriage or child marriage is defined as the
marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are
younger than 18 years old (McIntyre, 2006; ICRW, 2005). The term early
marriage or child marriage refers to any marriage of a child younger than
18years old in accordance to Article on the Convention on the Rights of
the child. UNICEF (2005) describes it as both formal marriage and
informal unions in which a girl lives with a partner as if married before
the age of 18. It can also be defined as any marriage carried out below
the age of 18 years before the girl is physically, physiologically and
psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and
child bearing. Child marriage is viewed as a violation of human rights and
is prohibited by a number of international conventions and other
instruments, namely: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948;
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages, 1964; African Charter on the Rights and
Welfare of the Child, 1990; and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, 1989.
76
Grace Atim / JGIDA, Vol. 6, Numbers 1 & 2, pp 73-94
Causes of Child Marriage in Nigeria
There are several causes, ranging from: Cultural and Social pressure;
persecution, forced migration and slavery; financial challenges; politics
and financial relationship; religion and child marriage (Aduradola, 2013).
To poverty and economic transactions; Notions of morality and honour
are also major causes of Child Marriage (Adebambo, 2010). In fact,
underlying causes of early marriage are many, which include poverty,
parental desire to prevent sexual relations outside marriage ,male-child
preference and the fear of rape, a lack of educational or employment
opportunities for girls, and traditional notions of the primary role of
women and girls as wives and mothers (UNICEF, 2008). Erulkar and
Bello (2007) opined that the basis for acceptance of early marriages in the
northern parts of Nigeria in particular is to preserve the value of
virginity, fears about pre-marital sexual activity, to reduce promiscuity of
the girl-child, and other socio-cultural and religious norms. However,
because of little exposure of most parents and their short sightedness,
they forget the effect it has on the girl- child as well as their community
development. It is however unfortunate, disturbing and worrisome that
the girl- child has no power to resist the pressure.
Poverty, weak legislative frameworks and enforcement, harmful
traditional practices, gender discrimination and lack of alternative
opportunities for girls (especially education) are all major drivers of child
marriage. Fragility of environment breeds particular fears and anxieties
that cause parents and girls to resort to early marriage as a protection
against risk (whether real or perceived) (World Vision UK, 2013). Lack
of education, the lower value placed on girls‘ education, school drop-out,
gender-based violence (including sexual violence) and early pregnancy,
can be both causes and consequences of child marriage. In many
societies, women and girls are subject to deep-rooted norms, attitudes
and behaviours that assign them a lower status than men and boys within
the household, the community and in society at large. These beliefs deny
girls their rights and stifle their ability to play an equal role at home and
in the community (Davis, Postles and Rosa, 2013).
The Effects of Child Marriage in Nigeria
Young girls may endure misery as a result of early marriage and the
number of those who would seek help, if they thought it existed, is
77
Girls not Brides: Ending Child Marriage …
impossible to calculate. Until more is known about their situation there
can be no reliable estimates of the scale of their predicament, or of the
social damage that is carried forward in the upbringing they give to their
own children. One thing is clear: the impact of early marriage on girls
and to a lesser extent on boys is wide-ranging. Within a rights
perspective, three key concerns are the denial of childhood and
adolescence, the curtailment of personal freedom and the lack of
opportunity to develop a full sense of selfhood as well as the denial of
psychosocial and emotional well-being, reproductive health and
educational opportunity. Early marriage also has implications for the
well-being of families, and for society as a whole. Where girls are
uneducated and ill-prepared for their roles as mothers and contributors
to society, there are costs to be borne at every level, from the individual
household to the nation as a whole.
Psychosocial Disadvantage
The loss of adolescence, the forced sexual relations, and the denial of
freedom and personal development attendant on early marriage have
profound psychosocial and emotional consequences. The impact can be
subtle and insidious and the damage hard to assess. It includes such
intangible factors as the…
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