Guidelines for ethical communications around child marriage: principles, best practice and tools

Stories about child marriage are not told in a vacuum, they are added to the wider communications and media environment, and to local, regional and global political contexts. These stories inform audiences about places and situations, as well as delivering the intended messages of organisations in the end child marriage movement, and the girls, adolescents and young women they work with.

These stories – images and words – have power to create both short- and long-term opinions about people and locations. Ethical communications create connections between those who have experienced or are working to end child marriage and the people who view their stories. They challenge stereotypes about girls, adolescents and young women – particularly those that have experienced or are at risk of child marriage – so they are seen as full, complex human beings, rather than defined by one experience or period of their lives.