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Voices MAY 2024

Dear friend,

Explore our May newsletter for highlights on the strategic donor meetings, ICPD and our ending child marriage initiatives, and calls for free education rights. Discover UN human rights tools, mental health impacts of child marriage, and opportunities for emerging activists.

🤝EVENTS

🍁STRATEGIC DONOR MEETING: 10th Anniversary

On the 23rd and 24th of April we celebrated our 10th anniversary co-hosting our annual Strategic Donor Meeting to end child marriage with our partners at Global Affairs Canada, at Canada house. Over the past decade, we have worked together with the Government of Canada to ensure that we build a space for donors and stakeholders to discuss how we can accelerate action to end child marriage.

Here are the key takeaways from this impactful event:

1️⃣ Accelerating action: We need to accelerate our work and investments for girls in the hardest-to-reach places and in regions where we are seeing the least progress.

2️⃣ Enhancing Collaboration with Humanitarian Sectors: We need more collaboration with the humanitarian sector so we have better accountability and programming for girls living in vulnerable settings.

3️⃣ Navigating Shrinking Civic Space Creatively: Now more than ever, we need to think creatively about how we operate in an increasingly shrinking civic spaces.

4️⃣ Unifying for Advocacy in 2024: We have opportunities to come together for key advocacy moments in 2024 to show our shared support and collaboration as we work towards 2030.

This year more than ever, we need to work together to protect girls’ and women's rights and accelerate our progress towards the 2030 Agenda.

📢 ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS 🩺ICPD30: Sexual and reproductive health and rights are key to ending child marriage

In the video, Maria Luiza Mendez, the Director of Paz Joven, a Girls Not Brides member organisation in Guatemala, delivers an oral statement on behalf of Girls Not Brides during the ICPD

In New York, our advocacy highlighted ongoing challenges in achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, despite notable progress in areas like reducing child and maternal mortality and shifting harmful gender norms. Even 30 years after the ICPD Programme of Action, girls and women continue to face barriers in gaining access to sexual and reproductive information, as well as health-care services, including family planning and comprehensive sexuality education.

FIND OUT ALL OUR ADVOCACY INTERVENTIONS AT THE ICPD [[link removed]] 📚HRC: We’re calling for expanded rights to free education to prevent child marriage - join us!

Free education is key to preventing child marriage and securing girls’ rights. Girls Not Brides is joining an initiative to strengthen the right to free education [[link removed]] for children around the world! Here’s how you can help.

Here's how you can help:

Write to your government asking for their support for the resolution and the initiative, in advance of the Human Rights Council June session, using this template letter [[link removed]]. The letter can be personalised, adding details from your experience and/or country. More country-level data can be found in our child marriage atlas [[link removed]] and UNICEF’s country profiles [[link removed]]; we also have an education brief [[link removed]] and research spotlight [[link removed]] with more evidence around the links between child marriage and girls’ education.Raise awareness of the links between child marriage and girls’ education, using our social media toolkit [[link removed]].Ensure your government fulfils its human rights commitments, using our toolkit [[link removed]] for civil society organisations to engage in your country’s review on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. FIND OUT MORE! [[link removed]] 📖 LEARNING AND EVIDENCE 🖥️Webinar: Advocating to extend the right to free education through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

🕒 Monday, 20 May 2024

10am London / 12pm Nairobi / 2.45pm Kathmandu

Webinar to discuss the proposal for a new Optional Protocol under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which aims to guarantee free secondary and at least one year of pre-primary education for all.

REGISTER HERE [[link removed]] 📝UNTB Toolkit: Leveraging United Nations human rights mechanisms to end child marriage: A step-by-step toolkit for civil society organisations

Whether you are a seasoned human rights advocate or a new actor in the field, this resource includes the tools and knowledge you need to use international human rights law and UN human rights mechanisms to advance national/level advocacy and press governments to take action to end child marriage and respect, protect and fulfil girls’ rights!

What is this toolkit?

This toolkit is designed to support civil society organisations in their vital mission to end child marriage and support girls who are – or have been – married or in a union. It is more than just a compilation of legal texts and procedural guidelines: it is a practical companion, offering actionable steps and promising practices from Girls Not Brides member organisations around the globe.

It is structured into four main sections, one for each key human rights monitoring mechanism:

The Committee on the Rights of the ChildThe Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against WomenThe Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural RightsThe Universal Periodic Review

It can be viewed as one text, or each chapter can be accessed as a standalone section. It includes all the relevant information to engage with these mechanisms at all stages of the reporting cycle to advance national-level advocacy and press governments to take action to end child marriage and respect, protect and fulfil girls’ rights.

LEARN HOW TO ENGAGE WITH THESE UN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS! [[link removed]] 🧠CRANK Symposium: What's known and what's next – Charting future action on the mental health consequences of child marriage

The first Child Marriage Research to Action Network ( the CRANK [[link removed]]) opportunity of 2024 was a symposium on child marriage and mental health, hosted by the University College London (UCL) Global Network on Mental Health and Child Marriage, in collaboration with the CRANK. This is a hybrid in-person and online event, hosted on Zoom and at UCL, London.

We know that mental health conditions – like anxiety and depressive disorders – are among the top causes of burden of disease among adolescents. We also know that approaches that work with girls and boys together are most effective at reducing gender-based violence.

But the evidence base on the mental health consequences of child marriage is thin and suggests that few programmes focus specifically on the mental health needs of girls and women who marry before age 18.

This half-day symposium brought together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and donors to explore the existing evidence on the mental health consequences of child marriage, and on what works to support girls who are – or have been – married.

MISSED THE WEBINAR? NO WORRIES, FIND OUT MORE HERE! [[link removed]] 🌍Women Deliver Emerging Leaders: Apply to the Emerging Leaders for Change East Africa Cohort

The Women Deliver Emerging Leaders for Change Programme [[link removed]] is a two-year leadership programme that supports passionate young activists with the resources, platforms, connections, and trainings necessary to amplify and achieve their advocacy goals.

Who Is Eligible for the Programme?

Young people (aged 15-29) of any gender and sexual identity who:

Live and work in Burundi , Ethiopia , Kenya , Rwanda , Tanzania , or Uganda Advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and/or gender equality, particularly focusing on advocacy that affects adolescent girls within their communities. Preference will be given for those interested or experienced in our focus issue areas: universal health coverage, the climate crisis, and countering the anti-rights movement.

🕒 DEADLINE: 30 MAY 2024 AT 11:59 pm (23:59) EAT

DON'T MISS OUT, APPLY NOW! [[link removed]] 📌 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... Reflecting on Skoll World Forum 2024: the time is now to invest in girls' and women’s movements

It’s hard to attend the Skoll World Forum and not leave feeling energised, uplifted, and inspired. Hearing the stories of and sharing ideas with some of the world’s most influential and enduring change-makers acts as a jolt of adrenaline as we consider the challenges we face in our own work.

READ THE BLOG [[link removed]] CSW68: Agreed Conclusions

The 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women concluded with the adoption of the Agreed Conclusions, which this year focused on accelerating the achievement of gender equality by addressing poverty, strengthening institutions, and financing with a gender perspective.

LEARN MORE [[link removed]] #DialogarParaCambiar event in Guatemala

This event offered a valuable opportunity to explore the context of child, early, and forced marriage (CEFMU) in the lives of children, adolescents, and youth in Guatemala. It also highlighted youth-driven approaches and facilitated ongoing dialogue with the new Guatemalan government to advocate for the inclusion of CEFMU in the public agenda. This engagement aims to encourage investment in comprehensive public policies that advance the rights of children, adolescents, and youth.

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