Adolescence

age at which individuals are legally able to perform certaintasks that might be associated with adulthood. This‘age of licence’ may vary from activity to activity, andthere is certainly no internationally applicable standard.In the United States, for example, where the age of majorityis 18, adolescents can legally drive a car at 16 in moststates. In contrast, young US adults are generally unableto purchase alcoholic drinks until they are 21. 16The age at which marriage is first possible may also divergesignificantly from the age of majority. In many countries, adistinction is drawn between the age at which anyone maylegally marry and an earlier age at which it is only possibleto marry with parental or court permission. This is the case,for example, in Brazil, Chile, Croatia, New Zealand andSpain, where the marriageable age is normally 18 but canbe reduced, with parental or court permission, to 16. Manyother nations have set a different marriageable age for malesand females, normally allowing girls to marry at a youngerage than boys. In the world’s two most populous countries,for example, the marriageable age for men is higher thanthat for women – 22 for men and 20 for women in China,and 21 for men and 18 for women in India. In other countries,such as Indonesia, minors are no longer bound by theage of majority once they get married. 17The third difficulty in defining adolescence is that, irrespectiveof the legal thresholds demarcating childhoodand adolescence from adulthood, many adolescents andyoung children across the world are engaged in adultactivities such as labour, marriage, primary caregivingand conflict; assuming these roles, in effect, robs them oftheir childhood and adolescence. In practice, the legal ageof marriage is widely disregarded, normally to allow mento marry girls who are still minors. In many countries andcommunities, child marriage (defined by UNICEF as marriageor union before age 18), adolescent motherhood,violence, abuse and exploitation can in effect deprive girlsespecially, but also boys, of any adolescence at all. Childmarriage in particular is associated with high levels ofviolence, social marginalization and exclusion from protectionservices and education. A similar situation occurswith child labour, in which an estimated 150 million childrenaged 5–14 are engaged. 18Weak national birth registration complicates efforts toenforce minimum age thresholds; just 51 per cent of childrenin the developing world (excluding China) were registeredat birth for the period 2000–2009. 19 Without suchregistration, which is a right under the Convention on theRights of the Child, it is almost impossible to fully protectYoung people can be instrumental in addressing pressing issues and sharing their recommendations with the global community. On 6 July 2009, youth delegates discussglobal issues during a working group session at the J8 Summit in Rome, Italy.10THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011