TORONTO -- A new analysis from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) suggests that 10 million additional child marriages may occur globally before the end of the decade because of COVID-19.
The analysis, , warns that school closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy, and parental deaths due to the pandemic are putting girls at increased risk of child marriage.
"COVID-19 has made an already difficult situation for millions of girls even worse. Shuttered schools, isolation from friends and support networks, and rising poverty have added fuel to a fire the world was already struggling to put out. But we can and we must extinguish child marriage," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a .
"International Women鈥檚 Day is a key moment to remind ourselves of what these girls have to lose if we do not act urgently -- their education, their health, and their futures."
According to UNICEF, 100 million girls were at risk of child marriage in the next decade before COVID-19, despite global efforts in recent years to help end the practice.
UNICEF reported that the number of young women globally who were married as children has decreased by 15 per cent in the last 10 years. Approximately one in five girls are married as children, down from one in four, which UNICEF says is the equivalent of roughly 25 million marriages averted.
However, the agency noted that this "gain is now under threat."
In the analysis, UNICEF reported that COVID-19 is "profoundly affecting" the lives of girls with travel restrictions and physical distancing making it difficult for young women to access health care, social services, and community supports that protect them from child marriage, unwanted pregnancy, and gender-based violence.
With schools being periodically closed across the world throughout the past year, UNICEF says girls are also more likely to drop out of education and not return.
"Job losses and increased economic insecurity may also force families to marry their daughters to ease financial burdens," the agency said in the report.
UNICEF estimates that 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those marriages occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, and Nigeria.
However, a January study conducted by researchers at McGill University also found that child marriage "remains legal and persists" across Canada.
That study found that were issued to Canadian children under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018.
Researchers reported that the highest estimates of any type of child marriage, whether formal or common-law, were in Saskatchewan as well as in the territories, with the number of underage unions also prominent in Alberta and Manitoba.
To help limit the impacts of COVID-19, UNICEF says progress to end child marriages must be "significantly accelerated."
The agency's goal is to end the global practice of child marriage by 2030. UNICEF set out this target in its , which were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, to "achieve a more equitable, just and sustainable world for all."
Fore said in the press release that "immediate action" is needed to help mitigate the pandemic鈥檚 toll on girls and their families, including reopening schools and ensuring accessibility to health care.
"By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social services -- including sexual and reproductive health services -- and providing comprehensive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl鈥檚 risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage," Fore said.
