Celebrating Girls for a Pink Future

I have had a seriously colourful week. Magenta to be precise. Working with Plan International we have been painting the town pink, so to speak, by taking pink balloons to Congress and the Government’s National Palace and proudly wearing our pink t-shirts, badges and scarves.

11 of October is the International Day of the Girl child and we have been talking to politicians of all parties about raising the marriage age for girls in Guatemala from 14 to 18. This campaign follows on directly from the messages of the Girl Summit that the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, hosted in July with UNICEF in London.

Early and forced marriage has negative physical, psychological, emotional and financial impacts on the young girls involved. The girls who spoke at the events said the same thing – they want the same opportunities as boys and the chance to have a fulfilling life. So we are pleased that we can support them in this goal.

We are concerned over the difficult circumstances faced by Guatemalan girls, including lack of access to education, early marriage and pregnancy, and domestic violence, amongst other problems. The Guatemalan laws allow girls to marry at 14 years old, with the approval of their parents/tutors.

These concerns are in line with the global efforts of the UK Government to tackle early and forced marriage, as mentioned above, and the British Embassy’s support of legislative initiative 4746, aimed at raising the minimum marital age for girls and boys to 18.

According to official statistics, in the last five years more than 80,000 marriages of children under 18 have been registered in Guatemala. 4,983 of these involved girls from 10 to 14 years of age. The departments with the highest record of child marriages are Guatemala, Alta Verapaz and Huehuetenango.

Our aim as an Embassy is to work to advance the rights of women and girls to ensure they have equal rights and opportunities to contribute to their societies, and ultimately to global stability and prosperity.