Posts

Stop Child Marriage

Image
  Children and adolescent girls marry and enter informal unions – by choice or by force – for many, complex, inter-related reasons. So, to end child marriage we first need to understand the systems, norms and behaviours that drive it, and what works to end it in different contexts. We will make faster, longer-lasting change if we listen to those affected by child marriage and work across sectors and with diverse stakeholders at all levels to end the practice. Girls – in all their diversity – must be at the centre of solutions to end child marriage. Families and communities must be engaged in transforming the negative social norms that limit girls’ choices. By working together, we can extend gender equality in the home and in public spaces, so that girls can reach their full potential. To make changes at scale, international bodies, governments, and political and faith leaders need to come together and commit to putting human rights standards into action all over the world. This me...

Social Equality

  equivalent treatment of and opportunity for members of different groups within society regardless of individual distinctions of race, ethnicity, gender, age, social class, sexual orientation, or other characteristics or circumstances. Given its breadth, social equality remains a global ideal yet to be obtained. Hierarchies continue to exist worldwide in which different groups of people are distinguished—whether intentionally or unintentionally—and consequently experience differential treatment that produces divergent daily realities. Consider marriage as an example. Many societies do not permit same-sex marriage, which means that gay men and lesbians in those societies do not have the same legal, economic, and civil rights as their heterosexual counterparts.