Jakarta, 8 March 2019 – ASEAN together with UNICEF, UNFPA, and Plan International organised a regional forum to raise awareness on child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Southeast Asia on 6 March at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. The forum marked the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 40th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The forum highlighted the unique challenges and potentials of girls and society at large in ending CEFM and mobilising actions to accelerate the elimination of violence against women and children and the attainment of gender equity, and girls’ empowerment.
Opening the forum, the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Socio-Cultural Community, DSG Kung Phoak, highlighted that CEFM “is not an issue of some countries in Southeast Asia, it is in fact an intractable challenge to all ASEAN countries.” He added the alarming fact that “globally, one in every five girls is married, or in union, before reaching the age of 18 while in Southeast Asia, child marriage, early unions and teen pregnancy are on the rise in some countries while progress has been inert in others.”
DSG Kung Phoak emphasised that the solutions to such intricate problem and to a myriad of ramifications require multi-stakeholders and cross-sectoral approach, particularly by taking into account the voices and participation of boys and girls.
The forum served as the beginning of an action-oriented dialogue among multiple stakeholders, aiming at accelerating efforts to eliminate CEFM and make ASEAN a CEFM-free region.
It was observed that similar to the global trend, the prevalence rates of child marriage and early unions as well as teen pregnancies in Southeast Asia remain high. Indicatively, the percentage of women aged 20 to 24 who were married or in union before 18 ranges from 35.4% in Lao PDR, 17% in Indonesia to 11% in Viet Nam. This is aggravated by the ensuing adolescent birth rate of 47 births per 1000 females aged 15 to 19 in the region; only slightly below the global average of 50.
The forum focused on taking stock of current situation on CEFM, and discussed innovative and promising effective practices to prevent, reduce and eliminate CEFM, which has a strong potential to be scaled-up. It provided a platform to raise awareness and promote exchanges between different stakeholders on CEFM focused on enabling factors with the focus on girls’ empowerment, challenges and strategies for partnership in accelerating the global efforts in combating CEFM in ASEAN. Moreover, participants explored ways to address in particular the importance of eliminating CEFM, identifying a set of concrete actions, next steps and specific areas for further collaboration.
The forum worked towards fulfilling the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children’s objective to tackle early marriage in the region.
Acknowledging that eliminating CEFM is a cross-cutting issue, the ACWC remains committed to join hands with relevant ASEAN bodies such as the Senior Officials Meeting on Social Welfare and Development, the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Youth, and the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Education.
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