Pursuant to resolutions on child, early and forced marriage (CEFM): 1) General Assembly resolution 75/167 entitled “Child, early and forced marriage”, and 2) Human Rights Council resolution 41/8 entitled “Consequences of child, early and forced marriage”, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is preparing two thematic reports:

1. A comprehensive report to the General Assembly on progress made towards ending CEFM, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
2. A report to the Human Rights Council on progress, gaps and challenges in addressing CEFM and measures to ensure accountability

These reports will be submitted to the General Assembly before the end of its seventy-sixth session and to the Human Rights Council at its fiftieth session, respectively.

Key Inputs Sought

In this connection, we would like to kindly request your cooperation to provide information in response to the following questions, which will help prepare the reports:

I. A comprehensive report to the General Assembly on progress made towards ending CEFM, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

General context:

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic:

1. What measures have been taken to implement the recommendations of the last report of the Secretary-General on the issue of child, early and forced marriage (A/75/262)?
2. What legislative actions have you taken to address the root causes of child, early and forced marriage? Any examples of legislation enacted, beyond the minimum age of marriage, such as laws repealing or amending provisions that enable perpetrators of rape, sexual abuse or abduction to be exempted from prosecution and punishment by marrying their victims?
3. What measures have you adopted to support girls that are already married or in informal unions? Do those measures contribute to:
   1.  Ensure their free, active and meaningful participation in decision-making on all issues affecting them, particularly when developing and implementing coordinated responses and strategies to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage?
   2. Protect their economic security and that of their families, including equal access to inheritance and property, social protection, employment and financial services?
   3. Support them to maintain or return to education, including technical and vocational education?
   4. Ensure their access to health services, including services related to sexual and reproductive health?
   5. Ensure their food and nutrition security, and their access to safe and affordable drinking water?
4. What actions do you take to support girls and women affected or at risk of child, early and forced marriage; especially those who have fled such a marriage or whose marriage has dissolved, and to support widowed girls or women who were married as girls?
5. What measures are in place to facilitate access by girls and women at risk and for already married girls and women to protective mechanisms and services, including legal services, safe accommodation and psychosocial support?
6. What measures are in place to facilitate access by girls and women at risk and for already married girls and women to protective mechanisms and services, including legal services, safe accommodation and psychosocial support?
7. What research has been conducted on married girls, including widow girls and women, and whose husbands have left them to fight or seek refuge internally or across borders, or who have been detained or disappeared?
8. Please share any examples of national reports on CEFM submitted to relevant international treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, and national voluntary reviews conducted through the high-level political forum on sustainable development?
9. Please share data and evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trend of child, early and forced marriage.
10. What measures are taken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on girls and women survivors of CEFM and at risk? For instance, have you continued or enhanced provision of protection and support services for survivors of gender-based violence, and adapted essential health-care services, including sexual and reproductive health-care services?

II. A report to the Human Rights Council on progress, gaps and challenges in addressing CEFM and measures to ensure accountability

1. Measures implemented to ensure accountability at the community and national levels, including the applicable legal framework, policies and programmes.
2. The legal consequences of CEFM, including criminal, civil, administrative and other legal consequences, as well as any documented effects, positive or negative, planned or unintended, of the application of the legal framework.
3. Statistical data on the enforcement of legal measures, including, when relevant,
   1. If CEFM is prohibited and/or criminalised, the number of cases prosecuted, who initiated the legal action (prosecutorial authorities, victims, or others) and who is prosecuted (children, parents, other relatives or others); as well as data on the number of cases investigated, and cases that result in a conviction; and
   2. The number of CEFM annulled and other civil or administrative related procedures.
4. Concrete measures implemented to ensure the integration of a human rights-based approach in judicial proceeding against CEFM, including age and gender sensitivity, victim-centred approach, respect of the best interest of the child, consideration of the evolving capacities of children, including adolescents, as well as their right to be heard.
5. The domestic articulation of the right to a remedy for victims of CEFM, including concrete measures to guarantee their right to reparations.
6. Any examples, good practices or lessons learnt on the use of strategic litigation related to CEFM and the impact of such initiatives.
7. Any examples, good practices or lessons learnt on the use of international and regional human rights protection mechanisms in relation to CEFM, including efforts made to include information on CEFM in the reporting to such mechanisms.
8. Any examples, good practices and lessons learnt by national human rights institutions to enhance State accountability for preventing and responding to CEFM.
9. Budgetary implications for the State for all measures related to CEFM and the design of gender and age sensitive budgeting and expenditure to prevent and respond to CEFM.
10. Methodologies and approaches used by States to measure progress in the eradication of CEFM, including in line with relevant Sustainable Development Goals indicators.

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