A/HRC/26/22 labour, and “a potentially high proportion of child marriage cases appear to constitute the worst forms of child labour under the 1999 ILO Convention No. 182.”38 22. Girls and young women who challenge, or are perceived as challenging, the power dynamics within the family are often subjected to severe consequences, including crimes committed in the name of “honour” and other forms of violence. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children has drawn attention to how child marriage makes girls especially vulnerable to violence and abuse.39 23. Child, early and forced marriage is associated with a range of poor health and social outcomes and other negative consequences. Specifically, early and frequent pregnancies and forced continuation of pregnancy are all common in child marriages. They are closely linked to high maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates and can have an adverse effect on girls’ sexual and reproductive health.40 In fact, “pregnancy-related complications are the main cause of death for young women, with girls being twice as likely to die from childbirth as women in their twenties”.41 Girls and women who are subjected to child, early and forced marriage are often not empowered to make decisions about, or lack accurate information about, their sexual and reproductive health, which compromises their ability to, inter alia, decide on the number and spacing of their children and negotiate contraceptive use, and places them at heightened risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections and HIV. 24. Child marriage and early childbearing are also recognized as significant obstacles to ensuring educational, employment and other economic opportunities for girls and young women.42 Often, girls are discouraged from attending school when they get married or may be expelled from school when they become pregnant and are treated as adult women regardless of their age. Research by Plan International in Kenya found, for example, that 84.2 per cent of girls who were married reported that they no longer had time to enjoy an education because of their new responsibilities as married girls.43 VI. Measures and strategies to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage A. Legislative measures 25. States are increasingly taking legislative measures to address child, early and forced marriage. These include amendments to laws to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 38 39 40 41 42 43 Anti-Slavery International, “Out of the shadows: child marriage and slavery” (April 2013). Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and Plan International “Protecting children from harmful practices in plural legal systems” (2012). See also Plan International, “A girl’s right to say no to marriage: working to end child marriage and keep girls in school” (2013). OHCHR, Practices in adopting a human rights-based approach to eliminate preventable maternal mortality and human rights (A/HRC/18/27 and Corr.1 and 2), para. 11. Ibid. Commission of the Status for Women resolution 51/3. See also the Programme of Action of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, paras. 4.21 and 7.41, the Beijing Platform for Action, para. 93, and the Joint Statement issued by a group of United Nations human rights experts to mark the first International Day of the Girl Child, 2012. Additional information on the social and economic consequences can be found in the Plan International submission. Plan Kenya, 2012, “Because I am a Girl: Country Report”, p. 8. 9