GENEVA / CAR CHILD MARRIAGE

The UN refugee agency reported today that displaced civilians in northern Central African Republic (CAR) are facing acute hardship, including a high incidence of child or teenage marriage and widespread use of children as labour. CH UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:21
• Production Date: 15 November 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: HUMAN RIGHTS; CRIMES; CRIMINAL JUSTICE
• MAMS Id: U111115f

Description

STORY: GENEVA / CAR CHILD MARRIAGE
TRT: 2.21
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 15 NOVEMBER 2011, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST– GENEVA SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, aerial view of the Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, Fatoumata approaches camera
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, author of the report, spokesperson, UNHCR:
“20 per cent of them say they lost at least one family member during the first half of this year. Girls as young as 12 years old are being sold into marriage and children as young as 6 are working in the fields because the parents are too poor.”
4. Cutaway, Fatoumata eyes
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, author of the report, spokesperson, UNHCR:
“Unfortunately the families are so poor they say that they have no means… and one of the ways to ensure that they get any housing or a bit of money or some food - even in the communities where they found refuge is to sell their children into marriage even as young as 12 years old because they feels its the only means for them to sort of survive.”
6. Cutaway, Fatoumata eyes
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, author of the report, spokesperson, UNHCR:
“Well we need to make sure that now we have some opportunities to assist - to help. That we go in and help very quickly. Years of harassment have turned people into almost beggars - they have no means of surviving.”
8. Med shot, UN Flag

Storyline

Displaced civilians in northern Central African Republic (CAR) are facing acute hardship, including a high incidence of child or teenage marriage and widespread use of children as labour, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency reported today (15 November) in Geneva.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Danish Refugee Council surveyed 300 families from a population of 17,000 people near the town of Ndélé between May and September 2011.
The Survey found that thirty percent of girls aged between twelve and seventeen had been sold into marriage in exchange for housing food or money. A similar percentage of children between the ages of six and fifteen, 32.5 percent, were being used as child labour.

Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, author of the report said that girls as young as 12 years old are being sold into marriage and children as young as 6 are working in the fields because the parents are too poor.”

Lejeune-Kaba also said that the displaced families were marrying their underage daughters to members of the host communities and sent children to farm and fish for these communities in exchange for housing, food or money,

The survey also revealed that one in five displaced families have lost at least one member during the first half of 2011 to violence, lack of health services, or shortages of food.

Lejeune-Kaba said that “years of harassment have turned people into almost beggars - they have no means of surviving.”

Ndélé, located around 700 kilometres from the capital, Bangui, was once considered the country’s breadbasket, noted UNHCR. However, because of the various rebel groups and armed banditry since 2005, many of its residents have been reduced to living in the bush, unable to do farming.

UNHCR assists more than 176,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and some 20,000 refugees in CAR. They are mainly from Sudan’s Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).