India has co-sponsored a resolution in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) proclaiming November 27 every year as the International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage.

The 193-member UNGA on Friday (September 4, 2026) adopted by consensus the resolution titled ‘International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage’ led by Sierra Leone.

India was among the nations that joined as co-sponsors of the resolution.

It was on November 27, 2024 that the ‘Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat’, also known as Child Marriage Free India, campaign was launched in the country, aiming to reduce the prevalence of child marriage by 10% by 2026 and make India child marriage free by 2030.

The issue was also championed by Sierra Leone’s First Lady and President of the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), Fatima Maada Bio and Just Rights for Children Founder Bhuwan Ribhu, who had initiated the international call for a dedicated global day to end child marriage.

“Today marks the beginning of the end, when the world has spoken in one voice. No More. This is the beginning where the world has spoken. Now is the time to act. From 27th November, the action begins,” Mr. Ribhu told PTI after the resolution was adopted in the General Assembly.

In March 2026, during his address at the United Nations, Ribhu had reiterated the call for a UN resolution in the presence of international leaders, including Maada Bio, who also voiced support for the initiative.

He had said that the International Day would serve as a global reminder of the need for accountability for unified action by governments, civil society, faith leaders, schools, communities and children.

Sierra Leone, backed by around 70 nations, including India, led the effort by tabling the resolution seeking to designate November 27 as a global day dedicated to ending child marriage.

Also read: Social scourge: On India and child marriages

Mr. Ribhu added that with the adoption of the resolution, governments all around the world need to take decisive action through comprehensive laws, budgeted national action plans, responsible and accountable institutions, and involve children in the process of participation with faith leaders, community leaders, government agencies, police, law enforcement, rule of law and ensuring that the ecosystem that perpetuates child marriage is collapsed.

The resolution encourages Member States to continue to develop and implement holistic, multisectoral national strategies and action plans to end child, early and forced marriage.

It calls upon Member States to invest in quality education for all girls, including programmes enabling married girls and young women to continue or return to education, and to promote the empowerment of women and girls as a key strategy for prevention.

It also recognised that child, early and forced marriage is a “harmful practice” that violates, abuses or impairs human rights, disproportionately affecting women and girls, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and threatening their education, health, economic opportunities and full enjoyment of human rights.

Just Rights for Children (JRC) said that the adoption of the resolution by the 193-member United Nations General Assembly marks a significant milestone, not only in the global movement to end child marriage, but also in the growing international recognition that child marriage is a crime and another form of child sexual abuse.

Just Rights for Children is a global child rights network committed to ending all forms of child exploitation, working to ensure that every child, regardless of geography, can enjoy a safe, healthy, and dignified childhood. The network has prevented and stopped over 550,000 child marriages since 2023.

In her address to the General Assembly before the resolution was adopted, Maada Bio said child early and forced marriage remains one of the most persistent barriers to gender equality, human rights and sustainable development.

“It undermines girls’ education. It threatens their health and well-being. It increases their exposure to violence, exploitation, and abuse. It limits their economic opportunity, perpetuates intergenerational poverty, and it prevents millions of girls from fully contributing to the social and economic development of their society,” she said.

“When a girl is forced into marriage, we not only take away childhood, we take away choices, we take away opportunities, and too often, we take away the future she could have helped build for her family, her community, and her country.” She added that support of nations joining to co-sponsor the resolution “sends a powerful message to girls everywhere: their rights, dignity, and future are not negotiable.”

Published – September 06, 2026 10:39 am IST

Israeli soldiers look at a destroyed part of Gaza City from their position at the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel on December 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

India voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly [UNGA] resolution that called for the withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and reiterated the call for achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in West Asia.

Also read: From solidarity to pseud, India’s shift on Palestine

The draft resolution ‘Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine’ tabled by Senegal was overwhelmingly adopted in the 193-member General Assembly on Tuesday (December 3, 2024).

India was among the 157 nations that voted in favour, while eight Member States – Argentina, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the United States voted against it.

Cameroon, Czechia, Ecuador, Georgia, Paraguay, Ukraine and Uruguay abstained.

The resolution, adopted as orally revised, reiterated its call for the “Achievement, without delay, of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East [West Asia]” based on the relevant U.N. resolutions and an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967, including of East Jerusalem.

The resolution called for the “withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem” and for the realisation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent State.

Through the resolution, the General Assembly reaffirmed its unwavering support, per International law, for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognised borders, based on the pre-1967 borders.

It also demanded that Israel, “the occupying Power, comply strictly with its obligations under International law, including as reflected in the advisory opinion of the International Court of 19 July 2024, including to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible, to cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to put an end to its unlawful Acts, including by repealing all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation.”

It rejected any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.

The resolution further stressed that the Gaza Strip constitutes an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied in 1967, and “reaffirms the vision of the two-state solution, with the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian State”. The resolution further stressed the need for an immediate and complete cessation of all Acts of violence, including military attacks, destruction, and Acts of terror, as well as all Acts of provocation and incitement.

India also voted in favour of a resolution in the General Assembly that demanded that Israel withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of June 1967 in the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.

The resolution was adopted with 97 votes in favour, 64 abstentions, and 8 votes against, including by Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The resolution expressed deep concern that Israel has not withdrawn from the Syrian Golan, which has been under occupation since 1967, contrary to the relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

It stressed the illegality of the Israeli settlement construction and other activities in the occupied Syrian Golan since 1967.

It declared that the Israeli decision of December 1981 to impose its laws, Jurisdiction, and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan is “null and void” and has no validity whatsoever and called upon Israel to rescind it.