A study conducted by UNICEF came up with the astonishing number of 115 million boys and men involved in forced marriages in over 80 countries of the globe, from Latin America to East Asia. From this total number, 23 million were not even 15 years old. According to Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, “child grooms are forced to take on adult responsibilities for which they may not be ready, and early marriage brings early fatherhood, and with it added pressure to provide for a family, cutting short education and job opportunities”.
It is well known that girls remain the most affected when it comes to forced marriages (1 in 5 young women aged 20 to 24 years old married before their 18thbirthday, compared to 1 in 30 young men), however, it is important to stress that “we need to remember that marrying boys and girls off while they are still children runs counter to the rights enshrined in the Convention [on the Rights of the Child]”, as pointed out by Henrietta Fore.