Participation of the PABSEC International Secretariat in the IPU online event “Ending child marriage in the time of COVID-19: What role for parliaments?”, 8 February 2022
Mr. Miltiadis Makrygiannis, PABSEC Deputy Secretary General, attended, on 8 February 2022, the IPU online event titled “Ending child marriage in the time of COVID-19: What role for parliaments?”, co-organized by the IPU and the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage and Girls Not Brides
The event brought together more than 160 participants, among them, parliamentarians, government officials, civil society representatives and United Nations representatives.
As Ms. Nankali Maksud (Coordinator, UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program to End Child Marriage) pointed during her keynote speech, child, early and forced marriage is a global problem, with 12 million girls marrying before the age of 18 every year. Despite progress in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting child marriage prevention programmes while increasing poverty and inequality, which are known drivers of child marriage.
In a panel discussion that took place between parliamentarians, it was stressed that the parliaments have been acting in various ways to prevent and respond to child marriage and described their efforts and the results of their actions.
Moreover, the participants shared information about the current state of child marriage globally and the impact of COVID-19 and discussed tangible actions that parliamentarians can take to prevent child marriage and respond to it in the time of the pandemic and in general.
All participants agreed that it is absolutely important to further promote the dialogue between parliamentarians and other stakeholders working on child marriage prevention at the national and global levels.