“We ought to do everything in our power to ensure girls can become all they can be.” Desmond Tutu

In November, Desmond Tutu and Graça Machel took part in a Girls Not Brides conference discussing how to end child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa. The event in South Africa brought together activists, campaigners and experts from across the continent.

“The empowerment of girls holds the key to development and security for families, communities and societies worldwide.”

In an opinion piece published in newspapers around the world for the International Day of the Girl, Desmond Tutu and Ela Bhatt call on the international community to commit to ending child marriage in one generation – letting girls fulfil their potential for generations to come.

“It’s not just throwing money at the problem. The idea is to ensure that the standards are respectful of the customs and traditions of the community.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, following his meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington DC, Desmond Tutu discusses The Elders' work to tackle early marriage and welcomes new aid commitments from the US and others to fund programmes that work with communities to end this harmful practice.

"With or without legislation, we urge the Obama administration to make eliminating child marriage a foreign policy goal."

Writing in the Washington Post, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu say we are not doing enough to fulfil our responsibility to protect young people from early marriage, and call on the United States government to make tackling child marriage a central focus of its international development agenda.

In this interview for BBC Radio's Focus on Africa, Archbishop Tutu calls child marriage "a devastating social custom used against innocent, vulnerable girls” and discusses the Elders' recent visit to Ethiopia where he met child brides and the people campaigning to end the practice.

In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, where girls are commonly married off at the age of 12, Elders Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson meet young girls determined to avoid early marriage and hear from women who were child brides themselves. The Elders and the young women are interviewed by Will Ross from the BBC.

Commenting in The Washington Post, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu describe how empowering girls can be one of the most effective ways to improve the health and prosperity of societies.