20th avril 2026

Toolkit for journalists covering child marriages in Latin America and the Caribbean

This toolkit, developed by Equality Now and Feminacida, provides practical tools to support ethical, gender-sensitive communication on child, early and forced marriages (CEFMU). Grounded in regional data, legal frameworks, and lived experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean, it explores the causes, consequences, and narratives that sustain this harmful practice and offers concrete recommendations for journalists, communicators, and content creators to report responsibly.

What’s inside the toolkit?

  • Key concepts, causes, and consequences of child, early and forced marriages
  • Ethical communication principles and gender-sensitive reporting guidance
  • Practical guidance for reporting, including interview recommendations, common mistakes to avoid, and illustrative examples of coverage

Who’s it for?

  • Journalists and media professionals covering gender and human rights
  • Communications teams, activists, and content creators

Key recommendations

  • Avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or normalising child marriage through language or framing
  • Centre the rights, dignity, and agency of girls and adolescents in all coverage
  • Use accurate data and contextual analysis to explain structural drivers such as inequality, poverty, and discrimination
  • Apply a gender perspective to uncover power dynamics and systemic violence behind the practice
  • Conduct interviews ethically, ensuring safety, consent, and non-revictimisation
  • Challenge misinformation and myths that perpetuate child marriage

Explore more resources

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Legislative action to prohibit child marriage in Bolivia

This policy brief explains why Bolivia’s Bill, seeking to eliminate legal exceptions that allow marriage from age 16, is urgent and what is at stake if action is delayed.

Ending child, early and forced marriages and unions in Colombia

This Policy Brief supports Colombia’s Bill to end child, early, and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU) and ensure alignment with international human rights obligations.

Civil society organisation toolkit: Gender equality & protection gaps in the United States

This toolkit helps CSOs and advocates push for gender equality in the U.S., focusing on constitutional rights, child marriage, FGM/C, and online abuse ahead of the 50th Session of the Universal Periodic Review.

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