The government of South Sudan should increase efforts to protect girls from child marriage. The country’s widespread child marriage exacerbates South Sudan’s pronounced gender gaps in school enrollment, contributes to soaring maternal mortality rates, and violates the right of girls to be free from violence, and to marry only when they are able and willing to give their free consent.

Two years ago, the signs were clear. My mother, with Alzheimer's, heart failure, and kidney failure, was not going to live long. My brothers and I took time off work for medical appointments and hospice care. I worried about her comfort, about how my dad would cope and how the grandkids would feel.

Bangladesh's family laws for Muslims, Hindus and Christians, some dating to the 19th century, grant men far greater powers than women in marriage and accessing divorce. They do not recognise women's many contributions to marital homes, husbands' businesses and other family property. They give virtually no guidance to courts for determining maintenance amounts when marriages break down. Yet these laws have remained frozen in time for decades, and in some cases more than a century.