War and Child Marriage: the vulnerability of Girls to Child Marriage due to the War in Northern Ethiopia

A study by Kulsma Nur, a 25-year-old Werdwet Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy (CARD), titled "War and Child Marriage: the vulnerability of Girls to Child Marriage due to the War in Northern Ethiopia," focused on the war-torn Afar region, where child marriage rates are among the highest in the country launches on 11 October 2023 at Semera, Afar region, Ethiopia. 

Kulsma Nur, 25, is a law graduate from Addis Ababa University. She was an active member of the law school community in participating its leadership. She is also graduated of Business Administration and Management from Admas University. Kulsma participated in moot court competitions in Ethiopia and abroad making it to the semi-final at the “All Africa IHL moot court competition”. Her team priorly won the National Moot Court Competition on Women & Political Participation, which was organized by UN Women in December 2020. Kulsma was selected for the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellow 2023.

Kulsma Nur's study found that the war has exacerbated the vulnerability of girls to child marriage in a number of ways:

Conflict and displacement creates an environment that exacerbates pre-existing harmful cultural beliefs and practices, leading to an increase in child marriage. At the same time, economic pressures that need to rebuild communities can also contribute to an increase in child marriage practice. 

Kulsma's research is timely and important because it sheds light on the complex relationship between war and child marriage. It also highlights the need for targeted interventions to protect girls from child marriage in conflict-affected settings.

CARD's Werdwet Research Fellowship is an annual research fellowship that supports young women and men to pursue their research passion while also investigating human rights issues and local practices that help mitigate or exacerbate the issues. By doing so, CARD empowers young and women researchers while also contributing to the promotion of indigenous knowledge on human rights issues. The fellowship is named after a legendary woman who lived in the Guraghe community of Ethiopia around 160 years ago. Yeqaqe Werdwet, as she was remembered historically, have fought for equal marital rights in the then tradition of Guraghe community and she also made it as the first woman to ever present her case to the court of elderlies known as Yejoka and win a case to divorce her husband and marry a man of her choice without an anqit (having curse spelled on someone) a privilege that used to be reserved for men. 

CARD is nonprofit, non-governmental organization established and based in Ethiopia. It envisions to see Ethiopia where democratic culture flourished on human rights values.  To this end, it has been working with a mission to empower citizens and groups of citizens to ensure their ability to promote and defend human rights and build democratic governance in Ethiopia.

Download or read the full research report by clicking here.