The Elders

Independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.

Child marriage

Child marriage affects millions of girls worldwide. The Elders are bringing together organisations working locally, nationally and internationally to build a global partnership to end this harmful practice.

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Gro Brundtland

News 14 March 2013

How can policy-makers help protect women and girls from violence?

“People can change their attitudes. We have to help them do it.”

Speaking at an inquiry of the UK International Development Committee, Gro Harlem Brundtland discusses what parliamentarians and policy-makers can do to ensure development programming tackles gender-based violence.

Elders blog Gro Harlem Brundtland, 29 January 2013

2030: a world free of child marriage

“It is ambitious to say that we can end child marriage by 2030, but I am convinced it is possible.”

Writing for Impatient Optimists, Gro Harlem Brundtland argues that including an end to child marriage in the UN’s new development goals would do much to empower girls, provide them with opportunities and ensure their well-being.

News Gro Harlem Brundtland, 12 March 2012

Sustainable development, democracy, peace: the key role of women

“Have men done more for peace than have women? I don’t think so.”

Gro Harlem Brundtland delivers the Nadia Younes Memorial Lecture at the American University in Cairo, 12 March 2012.

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Elders blog Gro Harlem Brundtland, 17 February 2012

Unlocking India’s potential: youth lead campaign to stop child marriage

“They want to be part of their country’s tremendous growth and opportunity; they want the chance to grow up before becoming parents themselves.”

After returning from India, Gro Brundtland blogs about the Elders' visit to an innovative youth-led project tackling entrenched attitudes towards child marriage in the state of Bihar.

Photos 15 February 2012

“My life, my decision: stop child marriage”

In February 2012 four Elders travelled to Bihar, India, to meet a group of young people campaigning to stop child marriage. After listening to the teenage girls and boys, Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson raised the issue with Bihar's Chief Minister, urging him to support the growing movement to end this harmful practice.

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News Gro Harlem Brundtland, Graça Machel, 23 September 2011

End child marriage now

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.

News Gro Harlem Brundtland, Graça Machel, 23 September 2011

Pour en finir avec le mariage des filles, que rien ne justifie

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.

Photos 17 June 2011

Towards an end to child marriage

In June 2011 Elders Gro Brundtland, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu travelled to Ethiopia to visit communities affected by child marriage and convene a meeting of experts and activists working to end child marriage around the world.

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Elders blog Gro Harlem Brundtland, 07 June 2011

Meeting child brides in Ethiopia

Elder Gro Brundtland blogs from Ethiopia about visiting Berhane Hewan, a project that educates girls, their husbands, their families and their community leaders about the risks of child marriage.