A discussion on girl child marriage in South Sudan
Opportunities for South Sudan held this discussion on child marriage in South Sudan. The video records the panel.
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Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union where one or both parties are under 18. Each year, 12 million girls are married before 18: 23 girls every minute, or nearly 1 every 3 seconds, according to data from Girls Not Brides.
In South Sudan, 52% of girls are married before their 18th birthday and 9% before the age of 15. According to UNICEF, the country has the seventh highest rate of child marriage in the world.
The speakers
Moderator: Adeng Leek. She founded the Opportunities for South Sudanese Initiative and has worked with the African Union Commission for 3 years. She has advocated for women's rights in Pibor, Juba and Wau, and for youth and peacebuilding with Horn of Africa Leadership and Learning for Action. She is a member of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) and a former human rights defender trained by Front Line Defenders.
Panellist: Nyagoa Nyuon. She is a women's rights activist and designer. She worked for the Government of South Sudan from 2008 to 2011, at the Ministry of Investment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She owns the fashion brand House of Bany, which promotes peace, and is a founding member of AnaTaban, a youth peace campaign started in 2016. She co-founded Catwalk to Freedom, which helps protect girls at risk of forced early marriage through fashion, photography and film.