acase@tulane.edu

<p>  </p> <p>How did the issue of child marriage go from relative obscurity in the United States to occupy a prominent place on the agendas of the majority of state legislatures in the span of a few years? The marriage of minors is internationally recognized as a human rights abuse – yet, until recently, it has remained legal under state law. This issue has just in the last six years ascended to legislative agendas even without public attention or the backing of powerful lobbying groups. I argue that social movements were integral in heightening legislative attention to this low salience issue. The movement to end child marriage engaged in both outsider tactics like theatrical public protests and insider tactics like testifying in committee to engage legislators on this issue. Communications from social movement organizations framed underage marriage around survivor experiences and child protection. I complete two case studies of efforts to ban underage marriage in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Pennsylvania became the third state to ban child marriage in 2020 while Massachusetts could not get a vote in both houses on marriage age reform. Evidence in this study includes analysis of traditional and social media campaigns and other archival materials as well as in-depth interviews with social movement actors and legislators. I also conduct a 50-state statistical analysis of those factors relevant to agenda setting and policy adoption on marriage age reforms. In case studies, I find social movement actors caught the interest of legislators even amongst an ambivalent public through their framing of child marriage and the centrality of child marriage survivors to their advocacy. I find a low salience issue like marriage age reform is less likely to reach policy adoption when those frames conflict with more salient issues like abortion. My findings in the longitudinal 50-state study support my hypotheses on the centrality of social movement actors at both the agenda setting and policy adoption phases. The existence of outsider tactics and online campaigns were both positively and statistically significantly related to a higher likelihood of agenda setting on marriage age reforms. In the policy adoption phase, the use of insider tactics is positively and statistically significantly related to a higher likelihood of adoption. This project increases our understanding of how social movements can drive policy change even in the absence of public attention through direct appeals to legislators. </p>

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Background: Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a right that should be guaranteed to every woman worldwide in order to have a healthy and safe sex life. In most Arab countries, including Egypt, there are different cultural, political, and religious factors that have contributed significantly to the manner that the society views and treats women’s bodies and sexuality. As a result, it is difficult to provide solid data and information to guide policymakers, policies, and to implement awareness and preventive programs. This thesis sought to address this gap by conducting a study looking at the intersectionality of women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services and information in Ismailia, Egypt. Methods: The relevant information was collected using qualitative methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve married women and two key informant interviews with health professionals in the study area. Results: Intersectional theory was used to critically examine the various interacting factors such as gender, patriarchy, economic disadvantages, and other discriminatory systems that that can undermine women’s access to SRH information and services. The study revealed that married women suffer from the lack of access to proper SRH services and information. Conclusion: Married women’s experiences of accessing SRH services and information were affected by different intersecting factors. These factors are socio-economic, policy, cultural norms, power structure contexts, and privilege structures, and religious institutions. Recommendations were drafted to add more information and evidence related to Egyptian women and their SRH rights.

The reason for the thesis is to show that child marriage not only occurs in Eastern countries, Africa, and Asia, but there are also child marriages here in Sweden. The honor culture is one of the important reasons that contributes to child marriage. Although Swedish law and children’s rights prohibit this, many children are still exposed to marriage. The number of child marriage is increasing year by year.   This essay will focus on research of two questions which are "What does the situation look like regarding child marriage in Sweden", and "How does honor culture affect child marriage". The method used in the research is qualitative text analysis. This method is designed to investigate problems in the community. The theoretical framework is the perspective of honor which is related to child marriage.   In the conclusion of this thesis, it is shown how the number of children being married off in Sweden is increasing and how the culture of honor plays an important role in child marriage in Sweden.   Keywords: Child Marriage, Honor culture, human rights, children’s rights, Sweden.

Millions of people's lives have been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also worsened existing inequalities and led to widespread abuses of human rights. This report examines the rise in teen marriage in Niger as a result of the global epidemic. The closure of schools, economic hardship, and social isolation have made females vulnerable to early marriage as families strive to reduce financial pressures or safeguard daughters from getting the virus. This report examines the causes of child marriage in Niger, the impacts of the pandemic on girls' rights, and the measures taken by government and civil society organisations to combat the issue. The document argues that child marriage violates girls' rights and perpetuates a cycle of poverty and poor health outcomes. The report concludes that urgent action is required to protect the rights of girls and end the harmful practise of child marriage, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This case study highlights the importance of addressing human rights violations during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the necessity of sustained efforts to promote gender equality and protect the rights of women and girls.

The practice of child marriage is deeply rooted in the Nepali history and still occurs in today’s society, even though it is illegal. Child marriages occur frequently in the Terai region, where Nepalgunj Municipality is located. The practice has shown to affect girls’ physical and mental health, as well as their social and financial development. The study aims at investigating the practice of child marriage and its effects on girls’ education in Nepalgunj Municipality. The purpose is further to understand how women, who got married as children, and different societal actors experience the practice of child marriage in relation to girls’ education. The study acknowledges gender and social construction as a theoretical framework and applies the idea of Agenda 2030, and the associated SDGs, as the guidelines for reaching a sustainable development, where all individuals can enjoy their human rights. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather empirical material. The focus groups were carried through with women and religious leaders. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with women and different societal actors; a principal, a government representative, and an employee at Child Workers in Nepal, CWIN, in Nepalgunj. The study showed that married girls’ chances to attend school decreased after the wedding. Several factors that affect their opportunities to continue their education after marriage were identified, such as restriction and surveillance, household work and pregnancy. The society’s idea that girls are not worth investing in also affects their chances to attend school.

Over the last 20 years, adolescent health researchers, practitioners and advocates have zeroed-in on the global problem of ‘child marriage.’ Defined as a formal or informal marital union before 18 years, child marriage affects both boys and girls, but disproportionally affects girls. Globally, child marriage is noticeably prevalent but on a downward trend, with the proportion of 20-24 year old women marrying before 18 years decreasing from 25% to 19%, from 2008 to 2020 (UNICEF, 2018; 2022). Extensive research has shown the adverse consequences of marrying during adolescence, ranging from increased risk of maternal mortality and birth complications, intimate partner violence (IPV), adverse mental health and intergenerational poverty outcomes (Burgess et al., 2022; Clark, 2004; Nour, 2009; Otoo-Oyortey & Pobi, 2003; UNICEF, 2018). From a rights perspective, child marriage is considered a violation of girls’ and boys’ ‘right’ to fully consent into marriage before reaching age of majority, internationally recognized as 18 years of age (Bruce, 2003; Nour, 2009). As such, child marriage is recognized as a human rights violation under several international treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The term ‘child marriage’ is commonly used to convey the human rights violations that early marital practices have for under-age girls and boys. While the term ‘child marriage’ has mobilized consensus and solidarity toward the issue, this terminology also homogenizes the issue of marriage as a problem affecting the ‘girl child’ with little to no agency in the marriage decision-making process. More specific to Uganda, this ‘child marriage’ terminology can be problematic where marriage more commonly occurs during middle to late adolescence (15-19 years) and when adolescents may exert varying degrees of agency and consent in the marital decision-making process. Except for Chapter 1 which explores ‘child marriage’ global and national movements, I intentionally use the terminology ‘adolescent marriage’ (as marriage before age 18), rather than ‘child marriage,’ throughout this dissertation. Despite the global push to ‘end child marriage’ over the last decade, there is limited research about how broader social and structural factors may be driving declines in adolescent marriage (Muthengi et al., 2021; Plesons et al., 2021). In particular, we have a limited understanding about how global efforts, social processes and norms might work together to drive marriage declines among adolescents. Through a mix of policy, quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation examines the policy, structural and social mechanisms that have contributed to declining adolescent marriage among adolescent girls in the context of southcentral Uganda. Chapter 1 begins with a broader contextual lens, examining the political evolution of the global ‘child marriage’ movement, and how the ‘problem’ of child marriage was then taken-up by government and civil society actors in Uganda. This chapter is informed by 20 key informant interviews with Ugandan and global stakeholders working on child marriage and a desk review of over 130 documents gathered across four years. This chapter highlights how the global ‘child marriage’ movement marked a political shift in adolescent girl funding, repackaging the issue of early marriage as an issue of ‘child protection.' The focus on child protection, rather than adolescent sexuality, was instrumental in mobilizing attention from liberal and conservative funders in the Global North and policy-makers in the Global South. In the priority country of Uganda, multiple factors influenced the national policy uptake of child marriage, including: 1. Regional campaigns that created consensus among Eastern and Southern African country leadership to address child marriage; 2. The availability of national data that showed the reach and severity of child marriage within Uganda; 3. The cultural and political appeal of child marriage as an issue of ‘child rights’, rather than one of ‘sexuality,’ and; 4. A network of government leaders, academics, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) who coalesced behind the issue in Uganda. Chapter 2 focuses-in on the southcentral region of Uganda, leveraging close to 20 years of quantitative data to understand how social and structural factors are affecting adolescent marriage declines in the region. Using data from 13 surveys (1999-2018) of the Rakai Community Cohort Study (RCCS), I couple decomposition and causal inference methods to assess how social determinants and adolescent pregnancies have contributed to adolescent marriage declines among 15 to 17 year old girls. I find that both marriages and pregnancies among adolescent girls substantially declined over the last 20 years, from 24% to 6%, and 28% to 8%, respectively, between 1999 and 2018, as a result of educational and economic improvements. Among all social determinants, girls’ secondary schooling was more closely associated with lower risk of marriage and pregnancy (aOR marriage = 0.09; 95%CI=0.07, 0.12; aOR pregnancy = 0.14; 95% CI=0.11; 0.19). In the causal mediation analyses, lower pregnancy rates partially explained the positive effect of higher secondary schooling on lower risk of adolescent marriage. Decomposition analyses showed that the declines in adolescent marriage between 1999 to 2018 were primarily attributed to pregnancy declines, and to a lesser extent, improvements in education and SES. These findings reemphasize the sizeable role of education in preventing adolescent marriages, in line with Uganda’s national educational investments such as universal primary education (UPE). Yet, these findings also underline the importance of adolescent pregnancy prevention to delay age at marriage. In the same region of southcentral Uganda, Chapter 3 uses secondary ethnographic data to more deeply explore the social mechanisms and norms that have contributed to changes in adolescent marriages. I qualitatively explore how the region’s social and economic changes have affected social norms about adolescent sex, courtship, and marriage in Rakai, Uganda. This analysis is informed by 16 focus group discussions and 15 key informant interviews conducted in 2018 with younger and older women and men, ranging from 16 to 77 years old. In comparing generational perspectives, I identify a ‘normative transition’, in which new structures are transforming courtship and marriage processes for young people. First, the HIV epidemic significantly weakened family structures, and in the process, courtship and marriage guidance previously provided by families and elders; second, the loss of land ownership in between generations has made marriage preparations more difficult for young people; and third, new social spaces outside the family home – including discos, mobile phones and schools - have expanded young people’s romantic geographies prior to marriage. These changes have reduced the importance of the family institution in the marital decision-making process, while increasing young women’s and men’s autonomy in engaging in premarital sex, choosing their partners, and delaying marriage. Although these changes have delayed age at marriage beyond adolescence, this transition has introduced unanticipated challenges for young people as they enter adulthood, including lack of overall parental, familial and elder guidance in their relationship and marriage formation processes. Taken together, these findings highlight the complexity of adolescent marriage changes and prevention efforts at the global, Ugandan, and southcentral region of Uganda. First, global and national ‘child marriage’ movements played a significant role in the uptake of child marriage as an issue of ‘child protection’, rather than one about ‘sexuality’ in Uganda. Yet looking at the context of southcentral Uganda, adolescent pregnancies and adolescent marriages declines appear to be closely linked, highlighting the importance of conceptualizing adolescent marriage as not just a child protection issue, but one of adolescent sex and sexuality. Lastly, I find that broader structural and social changes in Rakai have substantially changed adolescent norms around sex, courtship, and marriage, delaying age at marriage in between generations. However, young people are encountering new challenges as they enter adulthood and romantic relationships in the absence of pre-existing elder and familial systems and networks. Additional research should focus on understanding the unintended consequences of catalyzing norm change and delaying age at marriage, including how these changes might affect familial and community relationships and kinships. Twenty years into the global push to end ‘child marriage’, this dissertation research provides new insights into the complex structural, social and sexuality drivers of adolescent marriage changes in Uganda. Despite the substantial progress in adolescent marriage declines, this research points to key gaps that will need to be addressed to improve adolescent SRH rights and needs in Uganda, the East African region, and beyond. Of particular importance is the need to center adolescent sexuality within current child marriage efforts, as well as focusing on the broader social changes affecting adolescent relationship formation, rather than exclusively focusing on age at marriage as a marker of social change.

Child marriage, usually regarded as an issue pertaining to the non-‘developed’ parts of the world, can still be found in the United States (US), though efforts to combat it shape foreign policy goals. Is child marriage represented as a ‘problem’ in the same way internally as externally, and how do human rights play a role? Using Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” approach, the problem representations emerge, showing that child marriage functions as a ‘solution’ to welfare ‘problems’ in national policy, as an obstacle to economic prosperity in foreign policy; and as a ‘foreign’ culture ‘problem’ in immigration policy. Postcolonial feminist theory’s “Third World Girl” allows for a deeper understanding of some of the subjectivities these representations entail, and the biopolitical nature of the assumptions which underlie these problem representations are explored through Foucault’s theoretical work on sexuality and production.

This research focuses on the role that International Human Rights Law, policy and legislation should play in the protection of the rights of internally displaced children against child marriage. This thesis examines international treaties and domestic laws that purport to prohibit the practice of child marriage with particular attention to laws relating to the protection of internally displaced children (IDPs). / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Lana Baydas at the Department of Law, American University in Cairo, Egypt. 29 October 2007 / www.chr.up.ac.za / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Syftet med denna studie är att med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys studeraoch koda regeringens proposition om hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck (2020) där utgångspunkten är att lyfta fram hur regeringen definierar vad det innebär att vara en pojke och flicka i en hederskontext, samt vilka erfarenheter och roller som kan skilja dem emellan. Resultatet av studien visar att flickor är offer för hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck, resultatet visade att även om pojkar kan bli offer för hedersrelaterat våld så uppfattas de också som förövare. Studien visar att pojkar kan ha dubbla roller som både offer och förövare. Studien visar att både flickor och pojkar är utsatta för hedersbrottslighet men procentuellt skiljer resultatet åt då flickorna är utsatta i större grand än pojkarna. Slutsatsen är att införandet av barnäktenskapsbrott som ger upp till fyra år fängelse, straffskärpningsgrund mot brott med hedersmotiv och utreseförbud för att skydda barn från att tvångs gifta sig eller könsstympas utomlands ses som något ljust i Sveriges internationella åtagande om mänskliga rättigheter, då hedersrelaterade brottsligheten innebär kränkning av de mänskliga rättigheterna. Det ses mest ljust mot barnets rättigheter.