I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3175 
To protect girls in developing countries through the prevention of child 
marriage, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 25, 2007 
Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota (for herself, Mr. HONDA, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. 
TERRY, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, and 
Ms. CLARKE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To protect girls in developing countries through the 
prevention of child marriage, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Pro-
tecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Child marriage, also known as ‘‘forced mar-
riage’’ or ‘‘early marriage’’, is a harmful traditional 
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practice that deprives girls of their dignity and 
human rights. 
(2) Child marriage as a traditional practice, as 
well as through coercion or force, is a violation of 
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, which states, ‘‘Marriage shall be entered into 
only with the free and full consent of intending 
spouses.’’. 
(3) An estimated 51 million girls in developing 
countries now ages 20–24 were married under the 
age of 18, and if present trends continue more than 
100 million more girls in developing countries will be 
married as children over the next decade. 
(4) In developing countries, other than China, 
approximately one in seven girls marry before the 
age of 15 and one in three girls are married before 
the age of 18. 
(5) Child marriage ‘‘treats young girls as prop-
erty’’ and ‘‘poses grave risks not only to women’s 
basic rights but also their health, economic inde-
pendence, education, and status in society’’, accord-
ing to the Department of State. 
(6) In 2005, the Department of State con-
ducted a world-wide survey and found child marriage 
to be a concern in 64 out of 182 countries surveyed, 
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with child marriage most common in sub-Saharan 
Africa and parts of South Asia as well as the Middle 
East 
(7) In Ethiopia’s Amhara region, about half of 
all girls are married by age 14 with 95 percent not 
knowing their husbands before marriage, 85 percent 
unaware they were to be married, and 70 percent re-
porting their first sexual initiation within marriage 
taking place before their first menstrual period, ac-
cording to a 2004 survey. 
(8) In Afghanistan, where the legal age of mar-
riage for girls is 16 years, 57 percent of marriages 
involve girls below the age of 16, including girls 
younger than 10 years, according to the United Na-
tions Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 
(9) In some areas of northern Nigeria, 45 per-
cent of girls are married by age 15 and 73 percent 
by age 18, with age gaps between girls and the hus-
bands averaging between 12 and 18 years. 
(10) Between half and three-quarters of all 
girls are married before the age of 18 in the fol-
lowing countries: Niger, Chad, Bangladesh, Mali, 
Guinea, the Central African Republic, Nepal, Mo-
zambique, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and India, ac-
cording to Demographic Health Survey data. 
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