Dr. Helene D. Gayle and Deputy Administrator Donald K. Steinberg speak about the challenges of combatting child marriage at the launch event for CFR's new report on child marriage.

Child marriage is a global epidemic and a human rights violation that occurs across regions, cultures, and religions. According to Rachel Vogelstein, the success of U.S. efforts to foster economic growth, improve global health, and promote stability and security will grow if this persistent practice comes to an end.

Ending child marriage is not only a moral imperative—it is a strategic imperative that will further critical U.S. foreign policy interests in development, prosperity, stability, and the rule of law.

The pervasive practice of child marriage is stirring concern among U.S. foreign policymakers because it threatens to undermine U.S. interests in development, prosperity, and stability, says CFR's Rachel Vogelstein.

UNICEF produced this report card, Child Well-Being in Rich Countries, on April 10, 2013. The report card uses measures such as material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviour and risks, and housing and environment, and analyzes how recent government financial policies affect children.

Peter Orszag highlights research findings that reinforce the usefulness of test scores in evaluating teacher performance.

Despite the fact that Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist, survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, similar attacks against women, like the one in India, are on the rise. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that these attacks are efforts to stamp out women's progress and the potential of women worldwide will not be realized if this type of violence is tolerated.

The U.S. Agency for International Development released its vision for action against child marriage in October 2012.

In the wake of a move to increase instructional time for Chicago public school students, Peter Orszag highlights education research showing a link between more time in the classroom and improved academic performance.

President Obama gave these remarks to the Clinton Global Initiative on September 25, 2012.

Peter Orszag explains how summer inactivity can leave lasting negative impacts on a child's academic performance and physical health.

The State Deparment Foreign Affairs Manual lays out departmental functions, practices, and organizatonal responsibilities. In this chapter, the State Department states that it considers forced marriage of minors to violate human rights and be a form of child abuse.

The UN released its Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict on June 11, 2012.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that in the wake of recent poisonings in Afghan schools, safety in girls' education is a priority for Afghanistan's future.

This Declaration and Agenda for Action was released at the 1st World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm, Sweden on August 31, 1996.

The declaration begins, "We, gathered in Stockholm for the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, representing the Governments of 122 countries, together with non-governmental organizations, the End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) campaign, UNICEF and other agencies within the family of the United Nations, and other concerned organizations and individuals worldwide, hereby commit ourselves to a global partnership against the commercial sexual exploitation of children."

Peter Orszag explains how monthly cycles of food-stamp benefits may contribute to disciplinary problems among students from low-income families.

For all its goodwill, Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" film is dangerous propaganda, pure and simple, writes David Rieff at Foreign Policy. It's not a call to make a notorious celebrity out of Joseph Kony, he writes--it's a call to war.

Benn Steil's Forbes op-ed takes a critical look at the economics behind the Obama Administration's free-contraception insurance mandate.

This session was a meeting of the Women and Foreign Policy Roundtable Series.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses an innovative program in northern India, where one in two girls is wed before the age of 18, that is paying girls to stay unmarried and helping to lower the rate of child marriage.