U.N. News: Around 23 million boys have married before reaching 15; ‘we can end this violation’ says UNICEF chief
“An estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married as children, 23 million of them before the age of 15, according to the first-ever analysis on child grooms, launched on Friday by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Using data from 82 countries, the in-depth study brings the overall number estimated child marriages to 765 million, UNICEF revealed. ‘Marriage steals childhood,’ said Executive Director Henrietta Fore. ‘Child grooms are forced to take on adult responsibilities for which they may not be ready.’ The study discovered that child marriage among boys spans sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific…” (6/7).

Additional coverage of the UNICEF report is available from Deutsche Welle, The Independent, New York Times, and Thomson Reuters Foundation.