Publications
Tip Sheet for Healthcare Providers
Author: Forced Marriage Initiative
Publication: April 2024
This tip sheet provides an overview of forced marriage in the healthcare setting and provides guidance for healthcare providers who may encounter individuals facing a forced marriage. It includes dispelling common myths, an overview of the health impacts, common red flags, and tips on how to screen for and respond to suspected forced marriage cases.
For more information, please click on: Tips for Healthcare Providers
One-Pager: End Child Marriage in DC
This one-pager, updated on April 10, 2024, examines the reasons it is important for Washington DC to take action and end child marriage in the District.
U.S. States Fail to Protect Children’s Rights
Author: Human Rights Watch
Published: September 2022
A new interactive scorecard from Human Rights Watch assessed state laws across the country to see how well each state has done in implementing the standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The laws address four issues impacting children: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor, and juvenile justice. No state received better than a “C” grade, and the United States remains the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention. Read more.
Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage
Authors: International Labour Organization, Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration
Published: September, 2022
International organizations estimate that 50 million people were living in a form of modern slavery in 2021, including an estimated 22 million living in a forced marriage. These numbers are millions higher than the previous estimates done in 2017, a result of compounding global crises including the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced marriage impacts men and women in every region and country of the world. The authors recommend a comprehensive suite of policies to end forced marriage globally. Read more.
The Alignment of U.S. Child Marriage Laws to Data and Consent: Time for a Bright-Line Rule at the Age of Majority
Author: Andrea Jeglum
Published: Fall 2021
In this article, published in the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society, the author traces the legal and social history of laws allowing for child marriage in the United States, as well as attempts by states to protect children without fully ending child marriage. She concludes that these efforts to limit child marriage through parental consent or judicial approval conditions have failed, and that the only viable way to address the issue is for each state to set it’s minimum marriage age at the age of majority. Read more.
