“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.

Why did The Elders, “more accustomed to sitting down with government officials in North and South Korea, antagonists in the Middle East or peacemakers in Africa,” decide to launch a global campaign to protect the basic rights of girls and women?

Writing in The Nation, Barbara Crossette interviews members of The Elders about their efforts to bring together a global partnership of organisations working for an end child marriage.

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.

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.

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.

In this interview for BBC Radio's Focus on Africa, Archbishop Tutu calls child marriage "a devastating social custom used against innocent, vulnerable girls” and discusses the Elders' recent visit to Ethiopia where he met child brides and the people campaigning to end the practice.

At the World YWCA International Women's Summit in Zurich, July 2011, Mary Robinson speaks about the role of girls and young women as human rights defenders and leaders of their communities.

In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, where girls are commonly married off at the age of 12, Elders Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson meet young girls determined to avoid early marriage and hear from women who were child brides themselves. The Elders and the young women are interviewed by Will Ross from the BBC.

Just ahead of the 100th International Women's Day, Mary Robinson speaks to USA Today about the importance of ending child marriage and how The Elders can help tackle this harmful practice.

Speaking at an international conference held in Paris, February 2011, Mary Robinson discusses the relationship between religion, tradition and gender inequality. Citing the issue of child marriage as one example, she argues that promoting the rights of girls and women cannot be imposed on a society; instead, we must support activists working to change their culture from within.