Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2140) to prevent child marriage in United Nations- administered refugee settlements, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2140, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, let me start by thanking the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) for offering this bill and for shining a light on the problem of illegal child marriage, particularly among vulnerable refugee populations. I am grateful for Mrs. Wagner's leadership on an issue that we should all support. It is really important to all get around it.

Child marriage, Madam Speaker, deprives young people of their futures and hinders the progress of development work all over the world.

UNICEF reports that 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 every single year. What does that mean for these girls? It takes away their right to make vital decisions about their well-being, about their health, their family, their future.

Child brides are also less likely to finish their education and are at higher risk for abuse, contracting HIV, and dying while pregnant or giving birth.

Refugee populations are particularly vulnerable to child marriage. Poverty, instability, and displacement pressure families into marrying off children, particularly young girls, at an early age.

For example, child marriage among Syrian refugees in Jordan increased from 15 percent in 2014 to 36 percent in 2018. One survey of Syrian refugees in Lebanon found that nearly a quarter of girls between 15 and 17 were married.

In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Burma have reported marrying off young girls to protect them from sexual violence.

Stopping this cycle and ending illegal child marriage is critical to supporting refugees and empowering youth for a better future.

A number of U.N. agencies are doing important work to address child marriage among the populations they serve. For example, the U.N.'s Joint Program on Child Marriage, a joint effort between UNICEF and UNFPA, is gathering new data and evidence on this problem and helping to build resilience in vulnerable populations, including refugees.

But there is much more we can be doing, and this bill demonstrates American support for tackling this problem. It would require us to flex our muscles in the U.N. to come up with a comprehensive definition of child marriage. It would also require a new strategy to ensure that displaced populations have the protections and the tools to avoid illegal child marriage.

We want to empower young people to have a better future, and this bill will help us get at a problem that threatens far too many futures, so I am pleased to support this measure.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, first, I want to thank the author of this bill for her kind words.

As she pointed out, child marriage is a problem that befalls far too many young people around the world, especially among desperate families who, because of poverty or instability, feel they have no choice but to commit their children to marriage. Of course, when this happens, it starts another cycle of poverty and instability, of abuse and illness. It is just a tragedy.

This is one of those issues where we look at the situation and see a moral obligation to act. Dealing with this problem in our foreign policy is a reflection of our country's values, of our commitment to the rights and dignity of all people. This bill will help make sure our policy stays aligned with those values and that we are doing more to end the scourge of child marriage.

I again thank Representative Wagner for her work on this measure. I urge all Members to support it.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2140, the Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act, and I thank the chairman, along with the ranking member and all of my colleagues, for supporting this piece of bipartisan legislation through Foreign Affairs.

Humanitarian crises put women and girls at a much higher risk of violence and exploitation, including child marriage. Nine of the ten countries with the highest rates of child marriage are fragile states where weak institutions, high rates of violence, and stagnant economies make families more likely to resort to child marriage.

One United Nations study found that child marriage rates were four times higher among displaced Syrian refugees than among Syrians before the crisis. This indicates that displacement, instability, and poverty are driving child marriages.

Important research conducted by UNICEF revealed that, in 2018, more than 700 million women and girls, worldwide, were married before their 18th birthday; and of these, 250 million were married before their 15th birthday. Madam Speaker, these women are more likely to experience domestic violence and have worse educational, economic, and health prospects than their unmarried peers.

United Nations agencies have acknowledged the dangers of child marriage and taken steps to address it. The U.N. Joint Program on Child Marriage builds the resilience of populations to indirectly prevent child marriage and generates data and evidence on the prevalence of child marriage in humanitarian and fragile settings.

In Uganda, the U.N. Joint Program on Child Marriage helped 27,000 adolescent girls strengthen critical skills through school clubs and Go Back to School campaigns, as well as life skills and financial literacy training.

Last year, after the U.N. Joint Program on Child Marriage identified Yemen as one of its focus countries, 65,000 people, of whom 45,000 were adolescents, were reached with awareness-raising activities on the harms of child marriage. As a result, local council representatives, elders, and community leaders from six districts signed a pledge to support advocacy efforts to end child marriage.

My legislation would direct the United States to lead U.N. efforts to adopt a definition of ``child marriage'' and craft a comprehensive strategy to address child marriages in U.N.-administered refugee settlements. This strategy would include protocols to prevent and monitor child marriages; programs to provide physical, mental, and emotional support for victims; programs offering alternatives for child marriage; and measures to ensure that adults who are participating in illegal child marriages are held accountable.

Child marriage is a violation of human rights and a form of violence against women and children. I urge my colleagues to support the Preventing Child Marriage in Displaced Populations Act.

Madam Speaker, in closing, I want to thank the chairman for working with the ranking member, myself, and all of our colleagues on a bipartisan basis to make sure that we are supporting women and girls in these U.N. refugee camps. It is wonderful to be part of a committee that works in such a strong, bipartisan fashion. I am grateful for their support.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2140, the ``Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2019.''

H.R. 2140 calls for an adoption by the United Nations of a definition of ``child marriage'' and develop a comprehensive strategy through the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to address child marriage in refugee settlements administered by the United Nations.

Child marriage occurs when a formal marriage or informal union takes place in which at least one person is younger than age 18.

Illegal child marriage arises when a formal marriage or informal union involving at least one person younger than age 18 that is illegal under the laws of the country in which the child marriage occurs.

It is critical that we better understand the presence of child marriages within refugee settlements in order to assess how they intersect with the rates of violence against girls including young children and infants.

This bill calls upon the United Nations to adopt a comprehensive strategy including:

Collecting and reporting data related to the number of known or suspected child marriages taking place inside each such settlement;

Protocols for United Nations personnel regarding prevention and monitoring of child marriages inside each such settlement;

A description of programs administered at such settlements that provide--

(A) physical, mental, and emotional rehabilitation and support to children who have extricated themselves from child marriage; and

(B) alternatives to child marriage, such as education initiatives; and

Protocols regarding how United Nations personnel should--

(A) report adults participating in illegal child marriages in each such settlement;

(B) monitor the prosecution of such adults by the authorities of the country in which the 2 settlement at issue is located.

When enacted, H.R. 2140 will develop a framework in gaining data on child marriages globally as well as create effective strategies to combat them in refugee settlements.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2140 to confront child marriages which pose a strong threat to young children especially girls living within these settlements.