By Mackie M. Jalloh
Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Her Excellency Dr. Fatima Maada Bio, is set to take her long-standing campaign against child, early and forced marriage to the highest level of international advocacy when she joins the global conversation at the United Nations General Assembly on 4 September 2026.
At the centre of her mission is a bold proposal for the establishment of an International Day for the Elimination of Child, Early and Forced Marriage an initiative intended to keep the protection of girls firmly on the international agenda and galvanise governments, institutions, civil society and communities into sustained action.
The proposed observance represents another major step in Dr. Fatima Maada Bio’s “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign, through which she has consistently advocated for the protection of women and girls from early marriage, sexual violence and other forms of abuse. The campaign has gained national, regional and international recognition, with the First Lady increasingly using global platforms to amplify the voices and rights of vulnerable girls.
Her intervention at the UN comes at a particularly significant moment. In December 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution addressing the elimination of child marriage. The proposed International Day would build on that global commitment by creating a dedicated annual platform for awareness, advocacy, accountability and mobilization against a practice that continues to deprive millions of girls of fundamental rights.
For Dr. Fatima Maada Bio, however, the issue goes beyond resolutions, ceremonies and international declarations. It is fundamentally about the lives and futures of girls.
Child marriage can abruptly end a girl’s education, restrict her economic opportunities, expose her to health and social risks, and remove her ability to make decisions about her own future. In communities where poverty, harmful social norms and gender inequality intersect, girls can become particularly vulnerable to being pushed into marriages before they are emotionally, physically or economically prepared.
That is why the First Lady’s message ahead of September 4 carries a sense of urgency.
“Our girls are not brides,” is the powerful message behind her campaign—a declaration that childhood should be protected and that every girl deserves the opportunity to learn, dream, make choices and determine the direction of her life.
Dr. Fatima Maada Bio’s advocacy is also deeply connected to her broader work on girls’ education and women’s empowerment. In 2023, UNAIDS appointed her a champion for the empowerment and engagement of adolescent girls and young women in Sierra Leone. She has also championed Education Plus, an initiative focused on free, quality secondary education and empowerment for girls and boys across Africa.
Her campaign has repeatedly moved between community advocacy, national policy and international diplomacy. In Sierra Leone, she played a prominent role in building support for the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2024, bringing together stakeholders to advance stronger legal protection for children.
At the United Nations, that national experience gives her advocacy an important dimension: Sierra Leone is not merely calling on the world to act; it is presenting its own experience of confronting harmful practices and seeking to translate political commitments into protection for girls.
Dr. Fatima Maada Bio has previously carried the “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign onto the UN stage. During UN General Assembly engagements in 2019, she joined African First Ladies in calling international attention to rape, early marriage and violence against women and girls.
Her continued engagement demonstrates that the campaign is not being treated as a one off initiative, but as a sustained movement for social and legal change.
The proposed International Day could therefore serve as more than a symbolic date on the global calendar. If adopted, it could provide governments and development partners with a recurring opportunity to assess progress, strengthen legislation, support survivors, mobilize resources and intensify public education on the dangers of child marriage.
For Sierra Leone, Dr. Fatima Maada Bio’s appearance at the UN also places the country at the center of an international conversation about the rights and dignity of girls.
As September 4 approaches, her message is unequivocal: decades of advocacy must now translate into stronger action.
The First Lady is taking the voices of girls who have been denied education, robbed of childhood and deprived of choices to a global institution where nations have the responsibility to listen and act.
Her appeal is ultimately about giving every girl the freedom to remain a child, pursue an education, develop her potential and decide her own future.
The fight, she insists, is far from over.
The time for silence is over. The time for excuses is over. The time to end child, early and forced marriage is now.
And on September 4, Sierra Leone’s “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign will once again carry that message to the world.
