Social Exclusionary Processes Leading to Child Marriages in Kamuli Uganda

Child marriage has been heavily frowned upon in Uganda and many other countries because of the many social and health consequences related to it. International and regional human rights conventions like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) all advocate against the practice as it contravenes the human rights standards that govern the welfare of children. From a sociological perspective, this paper identifies and seeks to understand the social exclusionary processes that foster the practice of child marriage in Kamuli, Uganda analytically using the theory of social exclusion, gender and the development discourse to critically understand the social forces that lead young girls into marriage.