Thomson Reuters Foundation: “Sea change” needed to achieve goal of ending child marriage by 2030
“A ‘sea change’ is needed to achieve a global goal of ending child marriage by 2030, campaigners said ahead of a major meeting on Monday aimed at stopping the practice. Some 12 million girls a year are married before the age of 18 with often devastating consequences for their health and education, and ending the practice by 2030 is among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals…” (Yi, 6/24).

U.N. News: Women’s rights face global pushback from conservatism, fundamentalism — U.N. experts warn
“Women’s rights are under threat from a ‘backlash’ of conservatism and fundamentalism around the world, a United Nation panel warned on Friday. ‘Alarming pushbacks have been progressing across regions of the globe,’ through what the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice described as ‘alliance of conservative political ideologies and religious fundamentalisms,’ in its report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. ‘Practices such as polygamy, child marriage, female genital mutilation, so-called honor killings, and criminalizing women for sexual and reproductive behavior, have no place in any society,’ said a statement from the working group, adding that ‘there is no acceptable justification for waiting for the elimination of discrimination against women’…” (6/22).