Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions remains one of the most persistent violations of the rights of girls worldwide. In Latin America and the Caribbean, however, the phenomenon presents a distinct profile: while formal child marriages have declined following legal reforms, early unions remain widespread and continue to affect approximately one in four young women.

EADI Gender Justice Working Group members, Catalina Domínguez and Evangelina Martich presented their policy brief on child marriage and early unions in Latin America at an EADI Virtual Dialogue, within the EADI Gender Justice Working Group, on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl. Thank you to José-Roberto Luna Manzanero for moderating, and to everyone who joined.Three takeaways for anyone designing policy or programs on child protection in the region:01 — Legal bans are necessary, but they do not reach informal unions, which are the majority.02 — Prevention has to include adult men, families and communities in these unions and society as a whole, not only the girls.03 — Health, education and justice need protocols to detect early unions and treat them as gender-based violence.The full brief, in Spanish, is linked below.

Yesterday, we had the last webinar of the season (before a well-deserved summer break 🌻), a joint collaboration with the Humanitarian Observatory in South Asia (HOISA). Special thanks to all of you who joined from different parts of the world.

As part of Pride Month, our last Book Club organized a discussion that invited us to reflect on LGBTQI+ experiences through literature. We had the pleasure of hosting Eliana Nzualo (she/ her) for a conversation on her chapter Bloody Marys by the Bay, featured in Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality.

Last week, our EADI Gender Justice Working Group had the privilege of hosting author Mehriban Efendi for a conversation about her novel “Sat Alone by the Gate”.

Date: 27th May 2026, 18:00-19:00 CET