This in itself can be frightening, painful and traumatic as many girls' experiences show and can cause bruising, lesions and infection. Sex between a young girl and a much older man can also be a situation in which age dominates youth and can thereby fashion a relationship of fear, subservience and servility. These sexual experiences are abusive and where a minimum age for sexual consent is defined, amount to statutory rape. Girls who marry and then are coerced into sexual relationships will rarely discover that their marriage is a partnership of equals, in which her individual rights and needs can be realised. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by all countries except the USA and Somalia, offers much hope for children across the world.
Child marriage continues in many countries.
We must make a commitment to eradicate such marriages and make the rights contained in the Convention a reality for girls across the world. Marriage cannot be permitted to be a legitimising form of child sexual abus e Written for the NCSM Programme by Dr. P.Sen.