There are societies in which marriage is highly unequal and exploitative, but there are others in which marriage is more equal, less permanent, more favorable to women. If marriage is not universally similar, why should we seek to regulate it in a universal way? This is the question I will address at the upcoming Putting Children First conference in Ethiopia on tackling child poverty in Africa.

What concerns me is that child-focused campaigning organizations, as well as international institutions such as the World Bank, are progressively classifying everyone aged 0-17 in a single category of “child” and seeking to colonize this broad age category with universal policies and prohibitions. The diversity of young people’s experiences across this very wide age range, and between different societies, is ignored. Child marriage campaigns that draw on a simplified image of a young “child bride” in order to persuade governments worldwide to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 are just one example. Among the most recent countries to bow to this pressure was Malawi earlier in 2017.

Read the source article at Devex International Development