"September 2016"--Table of contents page. "This report was written by Heather Barr, senior researcher on women's rights, based on researched she conducted, with additional research by Era Shrestha, a consultant to Human Rights Watch, and Tej Thapa, a senior researcher on Nepal"--Acknowledgments. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Annex: Letter to the Nepal Government. Summary -- Methodology -- Terminology -- VI. Recommendations: Weak Enforcement and a Weak Law -- International Context -- II. Factors Driving Child Marriages: Love Marriages -- Poverty and Food Insecurity -- Lack of Access to Education -- Child Labor -- Social Pressures and Harmful Practices -- Escaping Deprivation of Abuse at Home -- Dowry -- Migration -- III. Consequences of Child Marriage: Termination of Education -- Early Pregnancy -- Health Consequences of Early Pregnancy -- Dosmestic Violence and Abandonment -- Sexual Violence -- IV. Government Actions to Combat Child Marriage: Providing Universal Access to Education -- Access to Information about Sexual and Reproductive Health -- Access to Health Care -- Efforts by Law Enforcement to Prevent Child Marriage -- Marriage and Birth Registration -- Compliance with the Law by Religious Leaders -- V. Nepal's National and International Legal Obligations: Right to Equality and Non-Discrimination -- Right to Marriage, Choose a Spouse, and Minimun Age of Marriage -- Right to Education -- Right to be Free from Physical, Mental, and Sexual Violence -- Right to Health -- Right of Children to Express Their Views Freely -- VI. Recommendations: To the Prime Minister -- To the Ministry of Women, Child and Social Welfare -- To the Ministry of Health and Population -- To the Ministry of Education -- To the Nepal Police -- To the Ministry of Law and Justice -- To the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development -- To International Donors and the United Nations -- Acknowledgments -- Annex: Letter to the Nepal Government.
Summary:
"Nepal has the third highest rate of child marriage in Asia, with 37 percent of girls marrying before age 18, and 10 percent marrying before the age of 15, despite the fact that the minimum age of marriage is 20 under Nepal law. This report is based on 149 interviews conducted across Nepal, most with married girls and young women who married as girls. It describes the devastating effects of child marriage, including denial of access to education, serious health consequences of early pregnancy, and domestic abuse. A complex web of factors drives these child marriages, including poverty, lack of access to education, child labor, social pressures, and harmful practices. Cutting across all of these is entrenched gender inequality, and damaging social norms that make girls less valued than boys in Nepali society. In July 2014, Nepal's government pledged to end child marriage by 2020. By 2016, this goal has shifted to ending child marriage by 2030. But the government has yet to take the concrete steps needed to achieve either goal. The report calls on Nepal to release a comprehensive plan to comabt child marriage, and seeks to support that process with recommendations drawn directly from the experiences of the married children who continue to be deeply harmed by this practice"--Page [4] of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.