2015 Victories: Child Brides Rescued from Evil in Kenya

This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the many victories by the ACLJ in 2015.

It’s unthinkable, but young girls – children – around the world are being forced to marry older men and undergo horrific sexual abuse.  As we battle to defend life and liberty, much of our efforts come on international fronts, working around the clock and across the globe to defend human rights.

One of those fights happened in Kenya this past summer, where our international affiliate, the East African Centre for Law and Justice (EACLJ), intervened and helped rescue two young girls who faced mutilation and a form of sex slavery as child brides.

The first girl, only 13, had already been forcibly married to the area chief when we arrived. And the second girl was just one week away from being married and subsequently mutilated. Our EACLJ team on the ground engaged with local partners and was able to deliver both of these young girls from the wholly evil fate of sexual abuse and mutilation.

Both girls are now in a private and secure school where they will be cared for and provided educational opportunities.  Despite their past traumas, we hope and pray they will now be able to dream of a future full of opportunity. The EACLJ continues to be a part of the rescue missions that help save girls in the area, one at a time.

Our EACLJ legal team is also working in courts in Kenya to use its expertise in local Kenyan law as well as its knowledge of Kenya’s obligations under international treaties and human rights law to advocate for the prosecution of the perpetrators of forced child marriages and female genital mutilations.  Already our team has won a significant victory even being allowed to intervene in court to ensure that the rights of innocent children are protected.

We will continue working in our offices across the globe – in France, Russia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Israel, and Kenya – to fight for the defenseless.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to make these victories possible and continue these fights, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge.  Your gift will be doubled dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You will be able to read more in the ACLJ’s 2015 Victories series here.