Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to draw parliamentarians' attention to Amnesty International's “I love my body, my rights” campaign on sexual and reproductive rights.
The purpose of this campaign, which is running throughout 2013, is to raise public awareness of forced marriage and pregnancy. Many activities have been organized in order to prepare for the International Conference on Population and Development, which is scheduled for 2014 and will focus on women's rights.
Even today, 10 million young girls under the age of 18, sometimes even as young as seven or eight, are forced into marriage without their consent, usually to much older men. They are then often forced to get pregnant, which frequently puts their health and life at risk.
As parliamentarians and as citizens first and foremost, we cannot accept this. We must fight these manifest injustices and do everything we can to protect women's rights.