A/HRC/21/41 19. Reaffirming forced and early marriages as slavery-like practices is important as it provides an understanding of the violations that victims endure and the kind of interventions required to prevent, monitor and prosecute servile marriage. Victim protection programmes can also be specifically tailored better to support victims of servile marriage. It moves the discussion from being about the rights of women and girls to being about abolishing slavery within communities. 20. It is important to note the distinction between servile marriage and arranged marriage. The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery was established by the Economic and Social Council in its decision 16 (LVI) to monitor the existence of slavery and the slave trade in all their practices and manifestations, including slavery-like practices such as servile marriage. The Working Group believed that it was important to highlight the distinction between forced marriage and arranged marriage. Arranged marriages, which exist in many parts of the world, are based on the consent of both parties, whereas forced marriages do not involve the consent of the parties or, at any rate, both of the parties. Any duress in a marriage is a violation of internationally recognized human rights standards and cannot be justified on religious or cultural grounds. The Working Group asserted that the perpetuation of forced and early marriages was a result of gender inequality and lack of both a culture of education for girls and of self-esteem. 21. Studies have shown that an overwhelming majority of women in servile marriage were forced to be girl brides. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Niger has the highest occurrence of early marriage, followed by Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Nepal, Malawi and Ethiopia.1 Girls and women experience the same violations within a servile marriage and, unless otherwise stated, the violations discussed herein apply to both girls and women. Girls are, however, much more vulnerable to abuse given their lack of physical and emotional maturity. IV. International legal framework on servile marriage A. International human rights instruments 22. The Supplementary Slavery Convention prohibits any institution or practice whereby a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; the husband of a woman, his family or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or a woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person. 23. The Convention implicitly prohibits forced early marriage. Under article 1 (d), States parties are required to abolish any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour. 24. To tackle the issue of forced and early marriages, under article 2 of the Convention States parties are required to prescribe, where appropriate, suitable minimum ages of marriage, to encourage the use of facilities whereby the consent of both parties to a marriage may be freely expressed in the presence of a competent civil or religious authority, and to encourage the registration of marriages. 1 6 The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.11.XX.1).