(11) Factors perpetuating child marriage in-
clude poverty, a lack of educational or employment 
opportunities for girls, parental concerns to ensure 
sexual relations within marriage, the dowry system, 
and the perceived lack of value of girls. 
(12) Child marriage has negative effects on 
girls’ health, including significantly increased risk of 
maternal death and morbidity, infant mortality, ob-
stetric fistula, and sexually transmitted diseases, in-
cluding HIV/AIDS. 
(13) In developing countries, girls ages 10 to 
14 who become pregnant are five times more likely 
to die during a pregnancy or in childbirth than 
women ages 20 to 24. 
(14) Child marriage can result in bonded labor 
or enslavement, commercial sexual exploitation, and 
violence against the victims, according to UNICEF. 
(15) Out-of-school or unschooled girls are at 
greater risk of child marriage while girls in school 
face pressure to withdraw from school when sec-
ondary school requires monetary costs, travel, or 
other social costs, including lack of lavatories and 
supplies for menstruating girls and increased risk of 
sexual violence. 
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(16) The World Bank reports in 2006 that it 
is estimated that ‘‘about half of girls in Sub-Saha-
ran Africa who drop out of primary school do so be-
cause of poor water and sanitation facilities’’. 
(17) UNICEF reports that investments in im-
proving school sanitation resulted in a 17 percent in-
crease in school enrollment for girls in Guinea and 
an 11 percent increase for girls in Bangladesh. 
(18) Investments in girls’ schooling, creating 
safe community spaces for girls, and programs for 
skills building for out-of-school girls are all effective 
and demonstrated strategies for preventing child 
marriage and creating a pathway to empower girls 
by addressing conditions of poverty, low status, and 
norms that contribute to child marriage. 
(19) Most countries with high rates of child 
marriage have a legally-established minimum age of 
marriage, yet child marriage persists due to strong 
traditional norms and the failure to enforce existing 
laws. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) child marriage is a violation of human 
rights and the prevention and elimination of child 
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marriage should be a foreign policy goal of the 
United States; 
(2) the practice of child marriage undermines 
United States investments in foreign assistance to 
promote education and skills building for girls, re-
duce maternal and child mortality, reduce maternal 
illness, halt the transmission of HIV/AIDS, prevent 
gender-based violence, and reduce poverty; and 
(3) expanding educational opportunities for 
girls, economic opportunities for women, and reduc-
ing maternal and child mortality are critical to 
achieving the Millennium Development Goals and 
the global health and development objectives of the 
United States, including efforts to prevent HIV/ 
AIDS. 
SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO PREVENT THE INCIDENCE OF 
CHILDHOOD 
MARRIAGE 
IN 
DEVELOPING 
COUNTRIES. 
(a) ASSISTANCE AUTHORIZED.—The President is au-
thorized to provide assistance, including through multilat-
eral, nongovernmental, and faith-based organizations, to 
prevent the incidence of child marriage in developing coun-
tries and to promote the educational, health, economic, so-
cial, and legal empowerment of girls and women as part 
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of the strategy to prevent child marriage in developing 
countries established pursuant to section 5. 
(b) PRIORITY.—In providing assistance authorized 
under subsection (a), the President shall give priority to— 
(1) areas or regions in developing countries in 
which 15 percent of girls under the age of 15 are 
married or 40 percent of girls under the age of 18 
are married; and 
(2) activities to— 
(A) expand and replicate existing commu-
nity-based programs that are successful in pre-
venting the incidence of child marriage; 
(B) establish pilot projects to prevent child 
marriage; and 
(C) share evaluations of successful pro-
grams, program designs, experiences, and les-
sons. 
(c) COORDINATION.—Assistance authorized under 
subsection (a) shall be integrated with existing United 
States programs for advancing appropriate age and grade- 
level basic and secondary education through adolescence, 
ensure school enrollment and completion for girls, health, 
income generation, agriculture development, legal rights, 
and democracy building and human rights, including— 
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(1) support for community-based activities that 
encourage community members to address beliefs or 
practices that promote child marriage and to edu-
cate parents, community leaders, religious leaders, 
and adolescents of the health risks associated with 
child marriage and the benefits for adolescents, es-
pecially girls, of access to education, health care, 
livelihood skills, microfinance, and savings programs; 
(2) enrolling girls in primary and secondary 
school at the appropriate age and keeping them in 
age-appropriate grade levels through adolescence; 
(3) reducing education fees, and enhancing safe 
and supportive conditions in primary and secondary 
schools to meet the needs of girls, including— 
(A) access to water and suitable hygiene 
facilities, including separate lavatories and la-
trines for girls; 
(B) assignment of female teachers; 
(C) safe routes to and from school; and 
(D) eliminating sexual harassment and 
other forms of violence and coercion; 
(4) ensuring access to health care services and 
proper nutrition for adolescent girls, which is essen-
tial to both their school performance and their eco-
nomic productivity; 
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(5) increasing training for adolescent girls and 
their parents in financial literacy and access to eco-
nomic opportunities, including livelihood skills, sav-
ings, microfinance, and small-enterprise develop-
ment; 
(6) supporting education, including through 
community and faith-based organizations and youth 
programs, that helps remove gender stereotypes and 
the bias against girls used to justify child marriage, 
especially efforts targeted at men and boys, pro-
motes zero tolerance for violence, and promotes gen-
der equality, which in turn help to increase the per-
ceived value of girls; 
(7) creating peer support and female mentoring 
networks and safe social spaces specifically for girls; 
and 
(8) supporting local advocacy work to ensure 
that governments and law enforcement officials are 
meeting their obligations to prevent child and forced 
marriage as well as legal literacy programs at the 
community level. 
SEC. 5. STRATEGY TO PREVENT CHILD MARRIAGE IN DE-
VELOPING COUNTRIES. 
(a) STRATEGY REQUIRED.—The President, acting 
through the Administrator of the United States Agency 
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for International Development, shall establish a multi-year 
strategy to prevent child marriage in developing countries 
and promote the empowerment of girls at risk of child 
marriage in developing countries, including by addressing 
the unique needs, vulnerabilities, and potential of girls 
ages eight to 18 in developing countries. 
(b) CONSULTATION.—In establishing the strategy re-
quired by subsection (a), the President shall consult with 
Congress, relevant Federal departments and agencies, 
multilateral organizations, and representatives of civil so-
ciety. 
(c) ELEMENTS.—The strategy required by subsection 
(a) shall— 
(1) focus on areas in developing countries with 
high prevalence of child marriage; and 
(2) encompass diplomatic initiatives between 
the United States and governments of developing 
countries, with attention to human rights, legal re-
forms and the rule of law, and programmatic initia-
tives in the areas of education, health, income gen-
eration, changing social norms, human rights, and 
democracy building. 
(d) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall transmit 
to Congress a report that includes— 
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(1) the strategy required by subsection (a); 
(2) an assessment, including data disaggregated 
by age and gender to the extent possible, of current 
United States-funded efforts to specifically assist 
girls in developing countries; and 
(3) examples of best practices or programs to 
prevent child marriage in developing countries that 
could be replicated. 
SEC. 6. DEPARTMENT OF STATE’S COUNTRY REPORTS ON 
HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES. 
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is amended— 
(1) in section 116 (22 U.S.C. 2151n), by add-
ing at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(g) The report required by subsection (d) shall in-
clude for each country in which child marriage is prevalent 
at rates at or above 40 percent in at least one sub-national 
region, a description on the status of the practice of child 
marriage (as defined in section 7 of the International Pro-
tecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007) 
in the country.’’; and 
(2) in section 502B (22 U.S.C. 2304), by add-
ing at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(i) The report required by subsection (b) shall in-
clude for each country in which child marriage is prevalent 
at rates at or above 40 percent in at least one sub-national 
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region, a description on the status of the practice of child 
marriage (as defined in section 7 of the International Pro-
tecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007) 
in the country.’’. 
SEC. 7. DEFINITION. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘child marriage’’ means the 
marriage of a girl or boy, not yet the minimum age for 
marriage stipulated in law in the country in which the girl 
or boy is a resident. 
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
To carry out this Act and the amendments made by 
this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated 
$25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012. 
Æ 
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