In order to prevent early and forced child marriages and unions, an awareness campaign is being developed in Bolivia, but focused on the departments of Pando, La Paz, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Beni.
“An awareness and social mobilization campaign is being developed against early and forced child marriages and unions”, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund in Bolivia (UNFPA).
For Unfpa, child unions or forced marriages are a harmful practice that is practiced “due to family pressures, forced pregnancies, the presence of discriminatory social norms and cultural traditions” that limit the development opportunities of girls and adolescents.
Therefore, with the support of the Spanish Cooperation Agency – AECID, a campaign is being carried out from 2023 to 2025 against Early and Forced Child Marriages and Unions (MUITF), which violate the human rights of girls and adolescents under 18 years of age.
The campaign highlights that MUITFs express coercion and lack of free and informed consent that forces girls to marry or cohabit with a partner, often older than themselves.
According to UNFPA’s Gender Social Norms Program Analyst, Mónica Beltrán, “despite legal advances and social efforts, MUITF still persist in Bolivia, rooted in poverty, violence and gender inequality”.
The consequences of this practice are expressed in school dropout, violence, perpetuation of the cycle of poverty, and risk pregnancies, the latter of which can lead to maternal and neonatal mortality.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), women under 16 years of age have a risk of maternal death four times higher than adult women.
Additionally, they are at higher risk of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and infections than women aged 20 to 24; and their babies are at higher risk of low birth weight, premature birth and severe neonatal condition.
Between 2014 and 2023, more than 4,800 marriages of female adolescents aged 16 to 17 years were registered; and 487 cases involved girls between 12 and 15 years old, according to the report of the Ombudsman’s Office presented in May 2024 on the violation of rights of girls and female adolescents.
Likewise, the 2011 National Maternal Death Study revealed that 14% of maternal deaths in Bolivia occur in children under 19 years of age.
In view of this situation, Unfpa emphasizes that information and collaborative social mobilization of different sectors is fundamental in processes that promote the eradication of harmful practices that violate human rights.