“We ought to do everything in our power to ensure girls can become all they can be.” Desmond Tutu

In November, Desmond Tutu and Graça Machel took part in a Girls Not Brides conference discussing how to end child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa. The event in South Africa brought together activists, campaigners and experts from across the continent.

“An estimated one in three girls in the developing world is married before the age of 18.”

As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concluded her 11-day visit to Africa, she met Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel at their home in South Africa. After discussing The Elders' work to tackle child marriage, Secretary Clinton affirmed her commitment to ending this harmful traditional practice.

"With or without legislation, we urge the Obama administration to make eliminating child marriage a foreign policy goal."

Writing in the Washington Post, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu say we are not doing enough to fulfil our responsibility to protect young people from early marriage, and call on the United States government to make tackling child marriage a central focus of its international development agenda.

In an interview with Metro International published in eight countries in Europe and the Americas, Graça Machel discusses progress on gender equality in Africa and her long involvement in the struggle to end child marriage. The story was published in English on the Huffington Post.

Le mariage des enfants est une tradition qui entrave le développement sur plusieurs plans : l'éducation, la santé, la pauvreté et l'égalité. Pourtant, écrivent Gro Brundtland et Graça Machel, ce sujet est rarement évoqué par les instances décisionnaires. Tribune publiée sur Rue89.

Dr Gro Brundtland and Graça Machel write in the Daily Beast that the practice of young girls becoming wives undermines equality and is a harmful “tradition” that must change.