World Health Assembly welcomes calls to address early marriage: It’s now time for WHO action
On Friday, 25 May 2012, the World Health Assembly held a dialogue on child marriage with interventions from almost 30 countries from all six World Health Organization regions that highlighted the negative health and social impact from early marriage on adolescent girls and their families and communities, and welcomed the WHO Secretariat’s report and guidelines on preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes in adolescents in developing countries. The dialogue showed WHO member countries recognize that addressing early marriage and its consequences for young women and children will lead to better health outcomes. This is a welcome step, but we still need to urge WHO to put child marriage high on its agenda and to drive further investment towards initiatives supporting child marriage projects.
Click here to read a blog written by Girls Not Brides | The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage on this important development!
