“Torit give us a chance! Marriage is between adults, not between an adult and a child. We are left without a future when our brothers are sent to school, but we are picked out to clean, cook and get married,” Mary Akur, a student at the Father Saturlino school, poured out.

During the cultural festival organized by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, under the theme “Ending Early Forced Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy”, girls in Torit reiterated their grievances about the rights of the girl-child.

More precisely, they decried the fact that these rights are all too often ignored. In Torit, where rigid traditional marriage norms are rife, it is commonplace to find girls under the age of 17, traded for wealth with marriage as the vehicle.

Parents and other family members who force young girls into early marriages are rarely made to face the full rigours of the law, despite the life-threatening implications of early pregnancies. One such risk is obstetric fistula, one of the most severe childbirth-related complications, which results in the loss of control over one’s bladder and bowels and ultimately in an inability to bear more children.

“South Sudan identifies with the United Nation’s convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, which includes protecting the rights of the girl-child. This means we must protect you when your parents force you into early marriage,” said Vitale Ongejuk, minister of gender, child and social welfare.

Mr. Ongejuk was addressing a group of bright-eyed school girls at the festival, in the presence of chiefs, government authorities, youth, women’s groups, and other civil society groups.

The UN mission is working with the people of South Sudan to protect the rights of women and girls through sensitization campaigns, which include advocating for existing laws to be properly implemented.

Such advocacy can also be conducted by means of asking thought-provoking questions, as did Caroline Waud, a representative of the peacekeeping mission attending the festival.

“Why give your young daughter away to a 60-year old man for only 200 cows, when your daughter can go to school, get a job and buy you 200 cows every month?”