A/HRC/21/41 sexually experienced men is, however, no guarantee that a girl will not be infected with HIV. Studies in Kenya and Zambia show that married girls are more likely to be HIVpositive than their sexually active unmarried counterparts. 5 80. Furthermore, isolation, marital rape and verbal abuse have serious long-term effects on victims’ mental health. D. Violations of the right to education 81. Education is considered to be the strongest predictor of the age at which a girl will be married. According to UNICEF, in Nicaragua, 45 per cent of uneducated girls are married before the age 18 of years, compared to 28 per cent of girls having completed primary education, 16 per cent of girls having completed secondary education and 5 per cent of girls having completed higher education. In Mozambique, approximately 60 per cent of uneducated girls are married by the age of 18 years, compared to 10 per cent of girls having completed secondary education and less than 1 per cent of girls having completed higher education.6 82. Girls are taken out of school and forced into servile marriage. The lack of education or limited education seriously harms their opportunities and choices, making them economically dependent on their husbands and vulnerable to poverty if their husbands die or abandon or divorce them.3 Societies in which servile marriage takes place often value boys more than girls. 83. World Health Organization research also shows that women and girls with low levels of education are at a greater risk of violence than better educated and older women. 7 The higher the levels of schooling for girls, the less they are at risk of servile marriage. In the United Republic of Tanzania, women who attend secondary school are 92 per cent less likely to be married before the age of 18 years than women who attend only primary school.6 E. Right to be free from physical, psychological and sexual violence 84. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its general recommendation No. 19 recognizes forced marriages as a form of violence against women. In addition, the Convention on the Rights of the Child call for States parties to protect children from physical, mental and sexual abuse and exploitation through legislation and other social and educational measures. The obligation to protect children from violence includes protection from parents and caregivers. Article 34 of the Convention requires that States parties protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse. 85. Domestic violence includes physical and sexual violence, and may be committed by the wife’s spouse, in-laws or other family members. According to UNICEF, women and girls who marry while aged under 18 years are less educated, more likely to experience domestic violence and believe that their husbands are fully justified in beating them than their peers who marry later.6 In Kenya, 36 per cent of girls who married while aged under 18 years believed that a man was sometimes justified in beating his wife, compared to 20 5 6 7 Shelley Clark, “Early marriage and HIV risks in sub-Saharan Africa”, Studies in Family Planning, vol. 35, No. 3 (September 2004), pp. 149-160. UNICEF, Early Marriage: A Harmful Traditional Practice (New York, 2005). World Health Organization, Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women (Geneva, 2005). Available from www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/. 15