On 8 June, within the framework of an agreement reached between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Georgia Country Office and the company The Body Shop, in cooperation with the Administration of the Government of Georgia, The Body Shop would engage in efforts to end early/child marriage in the country. The Company will allocate special scholarships for adolescent girls, reported georgiatoday.

“UNFPA Georgia Country Office is actively cooperating with The Body Shop, a company that openly supports gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women. For many years, it has been our priority to advocate for the prevention and elimination of child/early and forced marriage; we think it is important to unite our partners and mobilize our resources as much as possible to address this issue, so that every adolescent girl has an opportunity to realize her potential, and the society does not lose them as valuable human resources,” said the head of the UNFPA Georgia Country Office Lela Bakradze. 

The harmful practice of early/child marriage remains a significant challenge in Georgia, which is a gendered phenomenon: 13.9% of women aged 20-24 got married before the age of 18, which is one of the highest in all Europe (only behind Moldova and Turkey), whereas this rate is 0.5% among men. In recent years, the Georgian authorities have put increased efforts to tackle this issue, most notably through: 1) amendments to the law  to require a court’s approval before 16-year-olds can get married in 2015 and setting the minimum age for marriage in 2017; 2) adding a criminal law framework to tackle the practice (which is punishable by up to 3 years in jail); and 3) the addition of the Gender Equality Department in the Georgian Ombudsman’s Office which enhanced the awareness-raising activities of the office.