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In Africa, despite decades of campaigns to restrict child marriage through legislation and the adoption of minimum age laws, the practice is still very common and the continent is predicted to have the largest global share of child brides by the year 2050. This begs the question whether human rights law, as it stands, is the appropriate strategy against child marriage. On the one hand, law can create an "enabling environment" and strengthen those who seek the elimination of child marriage; but, on the other hand, vigorous enforcement of such legislation may result in counter-intuitive effects, leaving the girls more vulnerable instead of the law fulfilling its protective role. This article uses a socio-legal approach to argue that the solution to child marriage might lie in a form of translation and enforcement of human rights. It makes a case for the need for human rights to be translated according to local conditions in order to deal effectively with child marriage in Africa. In this case, "translation" refers to the reinterpretation and reframing of human rights in line with specific local conditions, leading towards assimilation and acceptance while maintaining its core foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites that the HIV epidemic has catastrophic consequences in large parts of Africa. Much hope is now put on antiretroviral drugs. But treatment will meet considerable operational obstacles in low-income countries and does not directly address the main control objective: change of social norms to reduce risky sexual behavior. With some exceptions, like Uganda and Senegal, effective scaled-up prevention is lacking in most low-income countries in Africa. The focus of HIV control in highly affected low-income countries must be on sexual behavior change in context.