Ouagadougou Consultation and Declaration on Early & Forced Marriage & the Rights of Women & Girls

From October 13th - 16th 2003 the Ouagadougou Technical Consultation on Early and Forced Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The primary goal of the consultation was to contribute to the improved well-being of women and girls and to protect their rights by reducing Early Forced Marriages among young African girls. The consultation brought together representatives from local NGOs, CSO, international NGOs and academics in the fields of sexual and reproductive health, social development, women's rights and human rights. These participants, mostly women, came from Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Canada and the UK for the opportunity to network, open dialogue, share ideas and the exchange of experiences and programme strategies.

The Ouagadougou Declaration on Early and Forced Marriage (2003)

One of the outcomes of the Technical Consultation is the Ouagadougou Declaration on Early and Forced Marriage (2003) which is presented below:

We the participants, representing six African countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, the Gambia, Mali, Nigeria and Sudan) and the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls who took part in the four-day 'Technical Consultation on Early and Forced Marriages' in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in October 2003 declare to our Governments and the international community:

• That child and forced marriage is an endemic practice in most parts of Africa which impacts adversely on the personal development, health and well-being of girls, with detrimental consequences to girls, women, communities and nations at large.
• That this practice of girl-child marriages is a public health concern, which impairs the sexual and reproductive lives of girls and women, and violates their right to life. Girls and women who are married early have a higher rate of maternal mortality and morbidity and suffer disproportionately from obstetric fistulas and HIV/AIDS.
• That while poverty and social-cultural reasons are the primary contributing factors that push parents and guardians to marry off their daughters at an early age, the resulting denial of education and access to vocational and life skills disproportionately affects girls from poor, marginalised, rural and less-educated families and communities. Thus, poverty becomes both a cause and consequence of child and forced marriage.
• That child and forced marriages violate a number of human rights conventions and declarations that most African governments have signed and/or ratified. Namely the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
• And call on Governments and International Development Agencies to recognise the efforts being made by civil society organisations in addressing the concerns and situation of girls and women affected by child marriage by providing the necessary support and resources to respond to the challenges posed by child and forced marriages.
• That our Governments and the African Union adopt a clear and unambiguous position on child and forced marriage and rectify the legislative loopholes between religious, customary and civil marriages, sign the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and ensure that special measure are taken to help end this practice
  To return to FORWARD's work with the Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls please click here.
  A Summary Report on the Consultation is available to purchase from FORWARD here .