The case of ‘child marriage’ has not been extensively studied in
international women’s rights and children’s rights scholarship.
This article attempts to contribute to a discussion about cultural diversity and
human rights through the case of early marriage. I argue that a strategy based on a
uniform marriageable age and a narrow rights-based analysis misses the complexity of
both marriage and age. I maintain that the socio-economic conditions in which girls,
adolescents and young women live and marry need to be examined and addressed in
order to develop relevant and culturally appropriate international strategies.
Further, I discuss the cultural specificity of childhood and adolescence in contrast
to the international human rights perspective that considers all people under the
age of 18 as children.
Abdalla, Asim Hamid
(1987) ‘Demographic and Socio-economic Factors
Affecting the Participation of Family Labour in the Rahad
scheme’, pp. 58–67 in
Mohamed A. Mohamed-Salih
and
Margaret A. Mohamed-Salih
(eds) Family Life in Sudan.
Khartoum: Graduate College Publications No. 18,
University of Khartoum
.
2.
AbouZahr, C.
and
Erica Royson
(1991) Maternal Mortality: A Global Factbook.
Geneva: WHO
.
3.
Allan Guttmacher Institute
(1998) Into a New World: Young Women’s Sexual and
Reproductive Lives.
New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute
.
4.
Alston, Philip
(ed.) (1994) The Best Interests of the Child: Reconciling
Culture and Human Rights.
Oxford: Clarendon
.
5.
Belsey, M.
(1976)
‘The Epidemiology of Infertility with Particular Reference to Africa’
, Bulletin of the World Health Organization54:
319–341
.
6.
Belsey, M.
(1997) World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children: Health and Psychosocial Dimensions. Working document for the
World Health Organization (WHO) for the World Congress. Geneva: WHO.
7.
Boxall, Bettina
(1993)
‘Women and Power: Tougher from the Word “Go”’
, L.A. Times, June 29:
2-2
.
8.
Bridgeman, Jo
and
Daniel Monk
(2000) ‘Introduction: Reflections on the
Relationship Between Feminism and Child Law’, in
Jo Bridgeman
and
Daniel Monk
(eds) Feminist Perspectives on Child Law.
London: Cavendish
.
9.
Bunting, Annie (1999) ‘Particularity of Rights, Diversity of
Contexts: Women, International Human Rights and the Case of Early
Marriage’, doctoral thesis, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Canada.
10.
Bunting, Annie
and
Sally Engle Merry
(2004) ‘Global Regulation and Local Political
Struggles: Early Marriage in Northern Nigeria’, prepared for the
Social Science Research Council: Globalization,
Youth and the Law Research Group
.
11.
Burr, Rachel
(2002)
‘Global and Local Approaches to Children’s Rights in Vietnam’
, Childhood9(1):
49–61
.
12.
Caldwell, John C.
,
Pat Caldwell
,
Bruce K. Caldwell
and
Indrani Pieris
(1998)
‘The Construction of Adolescence in a Changing World:
Implications for Sexuality, Reproduction, and Marriage’
, Studies in Family Planning29(2):
137–153
.
13.
CEDAW (United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women)
(1994) General Recommendation No. 21, thirteenth session,
4 February 1994.
14.
Christensen, Pia
and
Allison James
(eds) (2000) Research with Children: Perspectives and
Practices.
London and New York: Falmer Press
.
15.
Dagne, H. G.
(1994)
‘Early Marriages in Northern Ethiopia’, Reproductive Health Matters4:
35–38
.
16.
Demographic and Health Surveys Program (DHSP)
(1994) Women’s Lives and Experiences.
Calverton, MD: DHSP
.
17.
Executive Summary
(1997) Eastern and Southern African Regional Consultation on
the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Pretoria
.
18.
Hammami, R.
(n.d.) ‘Women in Palestinian Society’,
in
Marianne Heiberg
et al. (eds) Palestinian Society: in Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem:
A Survey of Living Conditions (FAFO-report 151).
Oslo: FAFO, Institute of Applied Social Science
, available at: http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/ssgfi/infodata/002806.html.
19.
Harrison, K.
,
Marianne Heiberg
and
Geir Øvensen
(Special Advisor Knud Knudsen) (1985)
‘Childbearing, Health and Social Priorities. A Survey of 22,774
Consecutive Births in Zaria, Northern Nigeria’
, British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology5:
61–71
.
20.
Hernández, Berta E.
(1991)
‘To Bear or Not to Bear: Reproductive Freedom as an International
Human Right’
, Brooklyn Journal of International Law17(2):
309–358
.
21.
Human Development Report on Globalization for Nigeria
(2000) National Human Development Report Nigeria
2000–01 (Millennium Edition), available at: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/detail_reports.cfm?view=563.
22.
Human Rights Watch
(1995) The Human Rights Watch Global Report on
Women’s Human Rights.
New York: Human Rights Watch
.
23.
Hutchison, R.
and
Miles McNall
(1994)
‘Early Marriage in a Hmong Cohort’
, Journal of Marriage and the Family56:
579–590
.
24.
James, Allison
(1998) ‘From the Child’s Point of
View: Issues in the Social Construction of Childhood’, pp.
45–65 in
Catherine Panter-Brick
(ed.) Biosocial Perspectives on Children.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
.
25.
James, Allison
,
Chris Jenks
and
Alan Prout
(1998) Theorizing Childhood.
Cambridge: Polity Press
.
26.
Jans, Marc
(2004)
‘Children as Citizens: Toward a Contemporary Notion of Child Participation’
, Childhood11(1):
27–44
.
27.
Jenks, Chris
(2004)
‘Editorial: Many Childhoods?’
, Childhood11(1):
5–8
.
28.
Jones, R.
and
Gnanapala Welhengama
(1996)
‘Child Marriages in Contemporary Britain’
, Liverpool L. Rev.18(2):
197–205
.
29.
Kurz, K.
,
Nancy L. Peplinsky
and
Charlotte Johnson-Welch
(1994) Investing in the Future: Six Principles for Promoting
the Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls in Developing Countries.
Washington, DC: International Center for
Research on Women (ICRW)
.
30.
Lim, Hilary
and
Jeremy Roche
(2000), ‘Feminism and Children’s
Rights’, in
J. Bridgeman
and
D. Monk
(eds) Feminist Perspectives on Child Law.
London: Cavendish
.
31.
Luker, Kristin
(1996). Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage
Pregnancy.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
.
32.
Macleod, Catriona
(2003)
‘Teenage Pregnancy and the Construction of Adolescence:
Scientific Literature in South Africa’
, Childhood10(4):
419–437
.
33.
Mathur, Sanyukta
,
Margaret Green
and
Anju Malhotra
(2003) Too Young to Wed: The Lives, Rights, and Health of
Young Married Girls.
Washington, DC: International Center for
Research on Women (ICRW)
.
34.
Merry, Sally Engle
(1997)
‘Global Human Rights and Local Social Movements in a Legally
Plural World’
, C.J.L.S.12(2):
247–247
.
35.
Monk, Daniel
(2000)
‘Sex, Education and Children’s Rights: Recent Local and
Global Perspectives’
, Education Law Journal1:
206–206
.
36.
Ojanuga, Durrenda
(1991)
‘Preventing Birth Injury Among Women in Africa: Case Studies in
Northern Nigeria’
, Orthopsychiatry61(4):
533–539
.
37.
Özgen, Eralp
, ‘Early Marriage, Brideprice and Abduction of
Women’, pp. 313–349 in
Türköz Erder
(ed.) Family in Turkish Society.
Ankara: Turkish Social Science Association
.
38.
Qvortrup, Jens
,
Marjatta Bardy
,
Giovanni Sgritta
and
Helmet Wintersberger
(eds) (1994) Childhood Matters: Social Theory, Practce and
Politics.
Aldershot: Avebury
.
39.
Rahman, Anika
(1994)
‘A View Towards Women’s Reproductive Rights Perspective
on Selected Laws and Policies in Pakistan’
, Whittier Law Review15:
981–981
.
40.
Schildkrout, Enid
(1987) ‘Hajiya Husaina: Notes on the Life
History of a Hausa Woman’, pp.
78–98 in
Patricia W. Romero
(ed.), Life Histories of African Women.
London: Ashfield Press
.
41.
Shehu, Dora
(1992) ‘Socio-Cultural Factors in the Causation
of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity in Sokoto’, in
Mere Nakateregga Kisekka
(ed.) Women’s Health Issues in Nigeria.
42.
Smith, Mary
(1964) Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Moslem Hausa.
New York: Praeger
.
43.
Sohoni, N. K.
(1992)
‘The Status of Female Children and Adolescents in Development and
Corrective Strategies’
, Feminist Issues3:
3–20
.
44.
Stephens, S.
(ed.) (1995) Children and the Politics of Culture.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
.
45.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
(2002) Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in
a Fragmented World, available at: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2002/en/.
46.
Waaldijk (1989) ‘The (Surgical) Management of Bladder Fistula in
775 Women in Northern Nigeria’, thesis, Utrecht. On file with author.
47.
World Health Organization (WHO)
(1998) Safe Motherhood: Health Day 1998: Delay
Childbearing, available at: http://www.who.org/whday/1998/whd98_04.html.
