(ANSAmed) - NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 26 - The right to choose
one's own spouse was recognised in 1946 in Article 16 of the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights, but ''even today, too
many women and girls are denied this right'', Italian Foreign
Minister Emma Bonino told the UN Core Group of countries leading
the campaign against forced marriage.
''The time has come for us to raise our voices and act with
courage to underscore the seriousness of this human rights
violation,'' she said in her speech. The meeting was held in New
York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and was
organised by Core Group members Canada, the Netherlands, and
Ghana. Italy joined the group recently. ''Up until now, the
United Nations has deal with the issue as part of the Omnibus
Resolutions, considering it within a large context'' that
includes the struggle against violence against women and child
abuse. ''But the issue is too important to be only one of many
on a list,'' the minister said. It is also an issue that Bonino
cares strongly about and which fits into a series of
wide-ranging campaigns for women and their dignity, the minister
told ANSA.
''It is a campaign that I have been following for years,
alongside that against female genital mutilation, since these
two horrible practices are linked and present in the same
countries,'' she said, underscoring that ''forced marriages are
a form of slavery.''
The practice is also widespread. In the 2000-2011 period, 34%
of women in 41 developing countries between the ages of 20 and
24 were married before their 18th birthday. In 2010 some 67
million women found themselves in this situation, including 12%
of whom were married before reaching age 15. ''We must raise our
voices together with those of the victims of early and forced
marriages and provide a political and legal framework to protect
them,'' Minister Bonino said at the meeting in New York. She
also said that Italy would continue to contribute to these
efforts, as it does to other campaigns for the protection and
promotion of human rights. (ANSAmed).
