Child well-being

Colombia flag

Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign

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There are currently 4.5 million girls and women in Colombia who married before 18 – about one in four. Of these, a million were married before they were 15. Now, Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to eradicate child marriage in the South American country after 17 years of campaigning by advocacy groups and eight failed attempts to push legislation through the house and senate. Colombia is now one of 12 countries out of the 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean to have entirely banned marriage under the age of 18, following Honduras, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.

digitally colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image, depicts a blue-colored, human white blood cell, (WBC) known specifically as a neutrophil, interacting with two pink-colored, rod shaped, multidrug-resistant (MDR), Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria

Global child deaths from pneumonia have been cut in half since 2009

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Pneumonia kills 2,000 children under five worldwide every day, making it the world’s biggest infectious cause of death in children. The introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) has significantly lowered the burden of death and disease from pneumonia, but millions of children remain unvaccinated. Since the public-private global health partnership Gavi supported the first roll-out of the PCV vaccine in 2009, 438 million children of all ages have been vaccinated in 64 countries, averting an estimated total of 1.2 million deaths by the end of 2023.

Metal pipes

U.S. announces 10-year deadline to remove all lead pipes nationwide

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President Biden has announced $2.6 billion in funding to replace all lead pipes in the United States as part of a new EPA rule that will require lead pipes to be identified and replaced within 10 years using the new funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. The EPA estimates that nine million homes in the U.S. still have lead pipes. “Studies show … communities of color have been the hardest hit,” Mr. Biden said. “One study showed Black children were at least two times more likely to have elevated levels of lead in their blood than children of other racial groups. We have an obligation to make things right.”

Good news for LGBTQ rights

Governor bans use of ‘conversion therapy’ on LGBTQ+ minors in Kentucky

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Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned the use of “conversion therapy” on minors in Kentucky on Wednesday, calling his executive order a necessary step to protect children from a widely discredited practice that tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling. The governor used his executive powers after Republicans who control the state legislature repeatedly blocked efforts to enact a state law banning the practice. Beshear said he would no longer wait for others to “do what’s right.”

South Korean flags

‘Major milestone’ immunization campaign begins in North Korea with support of UNICEF

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More than 800,000 children and 120,000 pregnant women will be vaccinated in a nationwide campaign launched on Monday by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with the support of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Over four million doses of essential vaccines — including Pentavalent, Measles-Rubella (MR), Tetanus-Diphtheria, BCG, Hepatitis B, and Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine (IPV) — were delivered to the DPRK in July to kickstart this comprehensive catch-up effort.

France to trial ban on mobile phones at school for children under 15

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France is to trial a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, seeking to give children a “digital pause” that, if judged successful, could be rolled out nationwide from January. Just under 200 secondary schools will take part in the experiment that will require youngsters to hand over phones on arrival at reception. It takes the prohibition on the devices further than a 2018 law that banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on the premises but allowed them to keep possession of them.

African children in schools

Zambia’s free schools lead to surge in student numbers

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The Zambian government introduced free primary and secondary school education in 2021. Three years later, an additional two million students are filling classrooms across the country. The overall increase in enrollment reflects a trend across sub-Saharan Africa, with more children in school than ever before, according to UNICEF.

Good news for LGBTQ rights

California passes first-in-the-nation law banning forced outings of queer students in state public schools

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The SAFETY Act prohibits “parental notification” policies in school districts that require educators to notify parents if their child requests to use pronouns and facilities different from the gender they were assigned at birth. The law, which goes into effect immediately, also protects teachers and administrators from retaliation if they choose not to follow district directives to out queer kids to their parents.

Sierra Leone woman

Sierra Leone bans child marriage

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Anybody in the West African nation now involved in the marriage of a girl under the age of 18 will be jailed for at least 15 years or fined around $4,000, or both. The Ministry of Health estimates that a third of girls are married off before they turn 18, accounting for the country’s high number of maternal deaths – among the highest in the world.

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