Girls speak out at the First African Girls' Summit on Ending Child Marriage

UN Women is participating and actively contributing to the First African Girls’ Summit on Ending Child Marriage, being held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 24–27 November 2015. Building on the African Union Campaign to End Child Marriage, the Summit seeks to mobilize African political and traditional leaders to deepen efforts to prevent and end child marriage, including by enacting, amending or enforcing laws that set the minimum age of marriage at 18 and punish perpetrators. The Summit equally seeks to spur investments in addressing child marriage and its root causes and engage donors, media and other key stakeholders in prevention efforts.

Summit participants recognized the particular efforts of the host country, Zambia, in promoting the cause and adopting its first National Strategy to End Child Marriage. At the recent Global Leaders’ Meeting in New York on 27 September, Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu committed to a range of actions to ensure gender equality, including continued efforts and policies to fight the scourge of violence against women and girls—including trafficking and forced early and child marriage.

Screened on 25 November at an African girls’ side event during the Summit, this video entitled “No to Child Marriage, Yes to Education” amplifies the voices of girls directly affected as well as those working to combat this form of gender-based violence.