The implications of early marriage for HIV/AIDS policy

How early marriage can hinder progress towards combating the spread of HIV and AIDS

By: Bruce J & Clark S
Published by: UNFPA / Population Council, USA , 2004
Via: Eldis

This briefing paper is based on a background paper prepared for the WHO/UNFPA/Population Council Technical Consultation on Married Adolescents, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 9–12 December 2003. The Consultation brought together experts from the United Nations, donors, and nongovernmental agencies to consider the evidence regarding married adolescent girls’ reproductive health, vulnerability to HIV infection, social and economic disadvantage, and rights.

The relationships to major policy initiatives - including safe motherhood, HIV, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights - were explored, and emerging findings from the still relatively rare programmes that are directed at this population were discussed.
The briefing paper concludes that in many countries early marriage is a multi-faceted assault on girls’ rights and may serve as a bridge for the HIV virus into the general population. It argues that promoting later marriage, to at least age 18, and shoring up the protection options including condoms, and, when they become available, microbicides, within marriage may be essential means of stemming the epidemic.