The United Nations Office at Geneva
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HRC53: Human Rights Child, early and forced marriage 13 July 2023
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50:24
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MOV
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2.9 GB
Speakers:
- HRC President
- Representatives:
- Netherlands
- Uruguay
- Nigeria
- Russia
- Egypt
- Iraq
- Argentina
- Chile
- Germany
- Costa Rica
- Georgia
- Lithuania
- France
- Mexico
- Montenegro
Resolution vote
- Representatives:
- UK
- Czech Republic
The Human Rights Council this afternoon adopted a resolution on child, early and forced marriage.
On child, early and forced marriage: ending and preventing forced marriage, the Council urged States to take comprehensive and human rights-based measures to prevent and eliminate forced marriage, and to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors. States should also promote and protect the right of all women and girls to education, including in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies.
In a resolution (A/HRC/53/L.3/Rev.1) on Child, early and forced marriage: ending and preventing forced marriage, adopted without a vote, the Council urges States to take comprehensive, multisectoral and human rights-based measures to prevent and eliminate forced marriage, and to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors; to promote and protect the right of all women and girls to education, including in situations of armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies; to ensure access to justice and accountability mechanisms and remedies for the effective implementation and enforcement of laws aimed at preventing and eliminating forced marriage and protecting the rights of those subjected to this harmful practice; to end impunity and to avoid the abuse of power leading to violence against women and girls and the revictimization of victims and survivors of such violence; to ensure access to justice and shelters for protection during the process of annulling a marriage; to ensure the timely registration of births and marriages; and the Council requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare concise and action oriented guidelines as a set of orientations for States on the effective application of a human rights-based approach to the development and implementation of laws in a comprehensive report to the Council at its fifty-ninth session.
Prior to the adoption of the resolution, the Council voted on and rejected five proposed amendments:
L.31: 15 in favour, 21 against and 10 abstentions
L.32: 10 in favour, 21 against, and 14 abstentions
L.41: 13 in favour, 21 against, and 11 abstentions
L.42: 10 in favour, 22 against, and 14 abstentions
L.45: 11 in favour, 23 against, and 12 abstentions
Teleprompter
We'll now proceed with draught resolution L3, ref 1, entitled Child early enforced marriage ending and preventing forced marriages marriage, which is being considered under item number 3.
And let let me give the floor to the representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Uruguay to introduce the text.
You have to, You have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I'm pleased to present to this Council the resolution on child, early and forced marriage, on ending and preventing forced marriage on behalf of a cross regional core group consisting of Argentina, Canada, Honduras, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, United Kingdom and my own country, the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
[Other language spoken]
President, the number of forced marriages has risen by almost 7 million between 2016 and 2021.
Let's stop for a minute and contemplate on this.
It means that over the past five years, two to three persons per minute were forcefully married off.
It means that when we conclude the adoption process of this initiative, 150 additional persons, youngsters, children will have been forced into a marriage.
[Other language spoken]
President, it reiterates the importance of combating the underlying causes.
We must hold ourselves at each other to the shared commitments made on a right to education, the goal of gender equality, poverty reduction, the promotion of economic empowerment of women and safeguarding the right to health, including the right to sexual and reproductive health.
This resolution reaffirms the right to enter intermarriage with full, free and informed consent and to decide freely on matters related to sexuality.
These rights are of particular importance in the context of child, early and forced marriage and have already been agreed upon since 1979 in SETO.
With this resolution, we aim to defend those rights of women and girls that protect them from sexual violence, from **** and adolescent pregnancy.
We are closely aligned with the Committee on the Rights of the Child and protect the rights of the child, while some of the amendments proposed do harm the rights of the child.
[Other language spoken]
President, with your permission and now pass the floor to my distinguished colleague from Uruguay.
The core group engaged extensively with all delegations to achieve a consensus outcome for 8 informal consultations and multiple bilateral meetings.
We have also made writing revisions to accommodate concerns.
We have come to a balanced text that addresses the urgent need and interventions to prevent this form of sexual and gender based violence.
We thank all delegation for the constructive engagement.
A special thanks to the 71 conspirator from all regional groups who show the broad support for this initiative.
For these reasons, we regret that the amendments were presented for this balanced text.
The main sponsor do not support these amendments and we call upon all members of the Council to vote against these amendments currently.
[Other language spoken]
Women alive were married off as children.
They were not only robbed for their childhood but also from having a pro special future.
We count on our Member State to uphold the commitment to end child early and forced marriage by 2030.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
I have been informed that draught Amendment L46 has been withdrawn and now I will give the floor to the representative of Nigeria to introduce written Amendment L 31 to Draught Proposal L3 ref 1.
You have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
President, I have the honour to introduce draught Amendment L31 on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and my country, Nigeria.
Sorry, excuse me.
In L31 we seek the valuable support of the delegations to vote in favour of our proposal to include the agreed formulation of the UN General Assembly language regarding sexual and reproductive health information and education of children.
The amendment simply seeks to include the General Assembly consensus language, a quote, appropriate direction and guidance from parents, and legal guidance with the best interests of the child as their busy concern and of course, after the phrase, consistent with their evolving capacities as highlighted in OP 4B.
We also seek to inform all delegations to know that the proposed language is drawn verbatim from OP 5L of the Resolution 77193 on intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, which happens to be cited by the core group as the same source of OP 4B.
In addition, our proposal is also found verbatim in OP 16 of Resolution 77/2O2 on child, early and forced marriage.
It is pertinent to highlight that with respect to the education of children on sexual and reproductive health, the language we propose has been mainstreamed in all resolutions of the General Assembly related to girls, including those on child early and forced marriage, violence against women and girls, the girl child and the rights of the child since 2017.
It is therefore regrettable that the core group has failed to accommodate our proposal and has instead chosen to deviate from existing consensus by refusing to include a vital language that has been omitted despite several requests made in good faith during many hours of negotiations.
This has quite sadly left us with no option but to table this amendment to ensure that the paragraph properly reflects and aligns with its source.
Undoubtedly, the General Assembly consensus language reflects a shared recognition of the importance of children's access to accurate and age appropriate information on sexual and reproductive health, while giving the due regard to primary responsibility of parents and legal guidance in their upbringing and development, particularly with respect to education on very sensitive matters.
To conclude, we wish to_the usefulness of consensus UN General Assembly language in deeply multilateral engagements as guide to this esteemed body and request all the distinguished members of the Council to uphold international standard by voting in favour of our amendments which seek to strengthen and align the text with universally agreed UN language.
I thank you, thank you, and now let me invite Russian Federation to introduce written amendment L 32 to draught proposal L3 ref 1.
[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
And now let me invite Egypt to introduce written amendments L4A1 and L42 to draught proposal L3F1.
And in order to save time, let me ask the representative to introduce both amendments contained in different L documents together, of course, on the understanding that each amendment will be acted upon separately.
Thank you, we have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
President, We would like to thank the court group led by the Netherlands for the detailed and constructive dialogue held with different delegations throughout the past four weeks.
In this regard, we would like to highlight three main points.
First, the very existence of this resolution is to fight and prevent child and forced marriage.
One in five girls across the globe married in childhood.
The voices we heard in the informal negotiations advocating normalising girls marriage was quite worrisome.
The UN agencies and the donor community has been calling for decades to prevent child marriage and all the legal frameworks are being revised towards this direction.
Unfortunately, the table text aligned with a few voices which were permissive to child marriage.
Hence we had to table amendments on PP12 and OP 7 as reflected in L42, as they were advocating directly and indirectly the marriage of children and raises a lot of concerns about the future of the current resolution.
Egypt is proud that its parliament is currently discussing A comprehensive law on the prevention of child marriage, and we will not be in a position to accept these new trends that violate child rights.
Children should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and children, by reason of their physical and mental immaturity, need special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, and in no way should be rushed into marriages.
Second, we regret the current language on OP 5A as reflected in L42 on inheritance law, which deviates for the first time from the consensual language.
The financial arrangements applied in various countries across the OAC surrounding our laws in marriage, divorce and inheritance is different from the Western ones and we hope this is respected and we don't see it discriminatory.
3rd, As for L41, Egypt is against all forms of violence either before, within or after marriage.
The term intimate partner violence is an unknown term in our culture, legal systems and data collection mechanisms.
Hence, we were asking for a modest change that respects the different legal systems and makes everyone on board and doesn't by any means condone the existence of different forms of violence.
[Other language spoken]
President, the current iteration of the draught resolution was a real legal struggle for many delegations, and we are quite disappointed that we are reaching the adoption with several contested paragraphs in this regard, and in case the amendments didn't pass, Egypt would like to disassociate from all the relevant paragraphs.
I thank you, thank you and now let me invite Iraq to introduce written amendment L 45 to draught proposal L3F1.
[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
Now let me turn to the representative of Argentina to seek the views of the sponsors on the amendments.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
So the sponsors do not agree with proposed amendments and let me inform you that there are ten additional Co sponsors to draught Resolution L3F1.
Let me now open the floor for general comments on the on draught text L3 refund and all its amendments.
Chiller chiller chiller chiller you have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Mucha Gracias, thank you, and we will continue with Germany.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
President, Germany extends its gratitude to the Cross Regional Core Group for presenting this important draught resolution on forced marriage.
[Other language spoken]
Forced marriage is a grave violation of human rights that predominantly impacts women and girls.
This includes child marriage, and forced marriage is an affront to the principles of dignity, equality and autonomy.
Countless women and girls are robbed of their childhood education and their dreams when married against their will.
The resolution is right to emphasise how important it is to give educational and economic opportunities for girls and young women, and the resolution before us is an outcome of tireless efforts for the core group that led by example on transparency and inclusivity in the negotiations.
This is resulted in a balanced text that reflected input from all delegations.
By submitting substantive revisions, the core group proved that they continued working with all delegations until the very end.
This resolution is a step towards eliminating child early enforced marriages by 2030 as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and working towards SDGS is a responsibility we all bear together.
Germany will therefore join consensus and will vote against any amendments to this important resolutions and calls on others to do the same.
Thank you, thank you Costa Rica.
[Other language spoken]
President I want to especially thank the Netherlands and the core group on behalf of the United states for facilitating this important text on ending and preventing forced marriage we emphasise the need to empower women and girls in all their diversity as a growing proportion of the global population leaders in their communities and a powerful force for the advancement of gender equality Thank you, Mr.
Forced marriage can make women and girls more likely to be targets of *****, limit their equal access to education and healthcare, increase their risk of pregnancy related morbidity and mortality, and block their ability to reach their full potential.
These phenomena create adverse consequences that can stymie social and economic development for everyone.
While all forced marriage is abhorrent, when it involves children it is especially so.
Developing girls are most vulnerable to all of the adverse ramifications of forced marriage I have already spelled out.
Children deserve carefree days filled with learning, laughter, and dreams.
The United States strongly supports this resolution and the full spirit of cooperation with which the Netherlands brought it forward on behalf of the core group.
With this in mind, we will vote against all amendments, and we encourage others to do the same.
I thank you, thank you, and now let me invite Lithuania.
President, we thank the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the core group for presenting resolution L3 Ref One title Child, early and forced marriage ending and preventing forced marriage.
We appreciate the continuous efforts on this very important initiative, chosen focus of the resolution and transparent constructive negotiation process.
One should never be forced to devote his or her life to someone against their will.
Forced marriage is a human rights violation.
Children are especially at risk when they are forced into marriage.
This practise has negative impact on a child's health and development.
It can also result in sexual and gender based violence or other form of violence against women and girls including adolescent girls.
It is our common responsibility to end this harmful practise.
We believe that the new OHCHR practical Guidelines for States to help ending and preventing child, early and forced marriage as mandated by this resolution will be especially valuable.
We thank the Core group once again for finding delicate balance between all positions expressed.
We are pleased to support the resolution as presented by the Core Group.
We encourage the Council to adopt this important initiative by consensus and ****** all the amendments.
[Other language spoken]
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[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Mexico is the next on my list.
[Other language spoken]
And the last country, at least for the time being, is China.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
There any other request for the floor at this point it's not the case.
So let me inform you that there are PBIS and they were posted on the extranet.
Now we will take action on each of the amendments 1 by 1 as received and then we will take action on the text as a whole.
So let us proceed with action on Amendment L 31 and let me give the the floor to Council members for explanation of votes before the vote on L31 and 1st delegation is Montenegro.
We have the floor.
[Other language spoken]
President, as a core group member, we thank all the countries and civil society organisations for their engagement and the contribution to the L3 resolution on child, early and forced marriage.
Since its first concessual adoption by the Council, the CFM resolution has served as a crucial tool to raise awareness, mobilise action and advocate for the rights of those at risk of child, early and forced marriages.
We acted unanimously in addressing this harmful practise, cheering each other to take concrete steps toward its prevention and suppression.
The relevant education plays crucial role for breaking the cycle of child marriage as it equips children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to realise their health, well-being and dignity, develop respectful social and sexual relationships, consider how their choices affected their own well-being and that of others, and to make an informed choices about their lives.
The OP 4B carefully reflects all aspects of providing us with access to quality education, also by recognising the role of parents and caregivers in this process.
Furthermore, parents and legal guardians generally do do not possess sufficient specific knowledge relating to all relevant aspects of human rights, human development, consent, gender equality or sexual and reproductive help.
Therefore, they should work in cooperation with experts to support the integration and uptake of this information and education.
This kind of education supports parents to prepare their children for the ward with expertise parents themselves often lack or are uncomfortable discussing.
Additionally, evidence demonstrates that parent advocacy groups who work closely with providers of section their productive health information are grateful and supportive of evidence based information.
That prepares young people for healthy relationships later on in life.
For this reason, the current phrasing in full partnership with parents and legal guardians is more appropriate in this context, and the proposed language of the man Manal 31 introduced by Nigeria and Saudi Arabia is redundant.
Finally, let us recall that this paragraph was adopted without a vote at the 47th Human Right Council session in the Girls Education Resolution, which 97 member states Co sponsored, among which some of the main sponsors of this amendment.
For all this reason, Montenegro rejects the amendment L 31 and we'll vote no.
We call on all other members of the Council to do the same.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
And now I'm asking Secretariat to close the voting machine and the voting is now closed.
The results of the recorded votes are as follows.
15 Sorry, 15 in favour, 21 against and then abstentions.
Amendment L 31 is therefore rejected.
A couple of the results of the votes will shortly be posted on the extranet and we will proceed with an action on Amendment L 32.
So let me ask the Council members who would like to take the floor on the explanations of votes before the vote on Level 32 Yankee Kingdom, please, thanking each and on thanking each and every delegation that has participated in the negotiations on the draught resolution before us.
And like other members of the core group, we aim for consensual text on an issue of grave importance to this Council.
As others have said, ending child early and forced marriage.
Therefore, it is with deep regret that we're not, sadly, not entirely surprised by the Russian decision to table amendments on such a critical initiative, and we strongly ****** the amendment set out in L32.
There have, of course, been significant advances since the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
The review conferences of these two consensual and landmark texts have ensured that we progress together towards achieving gender equality, as well as protecting women and girls agency, autonomy and empowerment.
The Russian amendment seeks to renege on our commitments as States to women's and girls rights and in particular to their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Moreover, by only including outcomes of the ICE, PD and Beijing reviews adopted by the General Assembly, we would exclude regional agreements and frameworks for action.
This resolution was present over the last 10 years, has consistently and by consensus referred to the outcome documents of the ICPD and Beijing reviews.
So let me urge our fellow members of this Council not to weaken our fundamental commitment that no women or girl is forced into marriage.
Stand up, women and girls, vote down this amendment.
Thank you, thank you, Czech Republic.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
President, the Czech Republic supports the resolution as presented and does not support and have the proposed amendment.
We wish to thank the main sponsors for leading open, transparent and inclusive consultations and putting forward a balanced text that reflects the importance of the topic at hand.
We cannot support the amendment L32 for the following reasons.
The amendment aims to change the long standing consensual language of the international community widely used at the this Council as well as the General Assembly and other UN FORA.
In its numerous resolutions, this Council has reaffirmed the Programme of Action of the ICPD and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, together with the outcome documents of their review conferences.
So did Heads of State and Government in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development adopted by the General Assembly.
The references to the outcome documents of the Review Conferences have consistently been made without a qualifier, and rightly so, as by including of the proposed qualifier, States would disregard other fundamental intergovernmental agreements and frameworks, those made at the regional level, on actions for the achievement of the full enjoyment of all human rights by all women and girls.
These documents reflect the deliberations of States and progress made in this context over the past nearly three decades.
They belong to critical tools of the realisation of Agenda 2030 and women's and girls human rights.
The formulation proposed by the amendment would thus represent a real regression in this process.
Therefore, we will vote no on the Amendment L32 and call on all members of this Council to do the same.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Since I don't see additional request for the floor, we will take connection on Amendment L 3232 and on the request of the delegation of Argentina, we will proceed with a recorded vote on L32.
Let me ask a secretary to open the voting machine.
[Other language spoken]
Please let me ask you to check your votes if they are registered properly and accurately on the screen, and if so, let me ask the secretariat to close the voting machine and the voting is now closed.
The results of the recorded votes are as follows, 10 in favour, 21 against and 14 abstentions.
The amendment O 32 is rejected.
A copy of the results of the votes will shortly be posted on the externet.