Child Marriage Free World Launches Global "100 Days of Action" to End Child Marriage

An initiative of Just Rights for Children launches worldwide 100 Days of Action on International Human Rights Day to galvanize support towards ending child marriage. 

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Child Marriage Free World (CMFW), an initiative of Just Rights For Children (JRC) today announced the launch of "100 Days of Action" to end child marriage. Globally, child marriage affects 12 million girls every year; more than 650 million women alive today were married as children. This global campaign launches on International Human Rights Day 2025 and will extend through March 20, 2026. It will build on CMFW's momentum in India, to mobilize individuals, organizations, public leaders and schools worldwide to sign a pledge to take meaningful action against child marriage.

JRC, led by child rights activist Bhuwan Ribhu, has mobilised one of the world's most successful grassroots movements to end child marriage. Initiated in India, the movement is expanding its work globally. 

"Our work in India has shown that when communities unite with clear purpose and sustained action, we can break the cycle of child marriage," said founder of Just Rights for Children, Bhuwan Ribhu. 

JRC's work over the last three years in India has resulted in widespread recognition of child marriage as a crime and helped reduce the number of child marriages in the country from 23% to less than 15%.

Specifically, JRC's partnerships with civil society and local governments across India have helped stop and prevent more than 400,000 child marriages since April 2023.

Following a successful expansion of this work from India into Nepal in 2024, Child Marriage Free World is bringing its proven approach and momentum to the world stage, underpinned by 100 Days of Action which will focus on mobilizing:

• 100,000 digital signatories of the Child Marriage Free World pledge.
• 100,000 schools approached to support the end of child marriage
• 100 governments or national leaders to engage with the campaign

"Child marriage remains a global human rights emergency that requires unified international action. When governments, communities, faith leaders and young people stand together to end child marriage, we don't just secure the rights of children; we reaffirm the values that bind humanity, propelling the world closer to achieving JRC's mission" added Ribhu.

"Through this 100-day campaign, our mission is clear: to work alongside governments, civil society, the judiciary and advocates to mobilise communities and drive the enactment and enforcement of laws that safeguard every child", said Owain James, Global Coordinator, Child Marriage Free World.

JRC's work is anchored in a simple yet transformative truth: When law enforcement is strong, when courts deliver justice, and when perpetrators are punished, families change behaviour and communities change norms. For 100 Days of Action, through engagement, education, advocacy, Child Marriage Free World will bring this approach to the world. Participating countries include Benin, Cameroon, India, Malawi, Nepal, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, the United States and others.

About Just Rights for Children 

Just Rights for Children (JRC) is creating the world's largest civil society network to ensure that the law works for children. It seeks to advance prevention, protection and prosecution of crimes against children with a focus on eradicating child marriage, child trafficking, and child sexual abuse.

About Child Marriage Free World

CMFW, an initiative of JRC, is a global campaign combining legal enforcement, community mobilisation and systemic reform to prevent, protect and prosecute with a mission to end child marriage worldwide by 2030.

Learn more and get involved: www.childmarriagefree.world

SOURCE Just Rights For Children (JRC)