Call for Papers: Conference Pathways to resilience and empowerment: child marriage at the crossroads of law and societal dynamics, 16-18 June 2027
Morogoro, Tanzania
Child marriage is a gendered issue: about 18 % of those married before age 18 are boys, while about 82 % are girls. Child marriages can result in early and frequent pregnancy and play a significant role in the proliferation of sexual and reproductive health problems. Child marriages exacerbate risks of maternal morbidity and mortality as well as infant mortality. In addition, child marriages often curtail further educational and economic opportunities, especially for girl children, creating further risks of intergenerational poverty.
Call for Abstracts
We invite forward-looking contributions on child marriage across different African contexts that foreground pathways to resilience and empowerment through legal approaches. While the conference will have a primarily legal orientation, we also welcome interdisciplinary contributions (in particular from social work and social sciences, more generally). In this regard, diverse methodological approaches are also encouraged. Sub-themes include, but are not limited to:
• Approaches to rethinking domestic law on child marriage as a resilience enhancing and empowering vehicle
• Approaches to rethinking regional and international human rights law on child marriage as a resilience enhancing and empowering vehicle
• Approaches to rethinking human rights-based approaches to child marriage as a resilience enhancing and empowering vehicle
• Approaches to rethinking climate law (and other areas of law) as a resilience enhancing and empowering vehicle
• Approaches to rethinking law on child marriage through customs and traditions
• Empirical studies on resilience and empowerment through legal and non-legal approaches
• Resilience enhancing and empowering approaches to child marriage in social work
• Strengthening girls’ agency, voice and pathways to empowerment: contributions that enhance understanding of girls’ lived experiences, strategies, aspirations and negotiations with their families and communities.
• Community-grounded pathways to changing child marriage: contributions that enhance understanding of how community systems and individuals navigate and negotiate changes in child marriage practices.
The conference is intended to be a platform for scholars and practitioners in the fields of law (especially human rights and climate law), anthropology, social work and the broader social sciences to meet, present papers and share their perspectives under the conference’s overarching theme, “Pathways to resilience and empowerment: child marriage at the crossroads of law and societal dynamics”.
How to submit an abstract
Interested contributors are invited to submit an abstract of max. 300 words outlining the proposed contribution. Submissions should be accompanied by a bio (max. 500 words) indicating the author’s background and explaining how their experience relates to the conference topics. Please use the following link to submit your abstract. The call closes on 15 September 2026. Accepted participants will be informed by 20 October 2026 at the latest.
For more details, refer here
