every year, 12 million girls are married before they reach the age of 18 — a practice the un has said will take 300 years to eradicate. now, three of the world's most high—profile humanitarians have vowed to tackle the issue together. but is this an impossible task? i have come to join michelle obama, amal clooney and melinda french gates on their first field visit together to malawi, a country where 42% of girls marry under the age of 18, to ask them how bad the issue is and if it can be turned around in a generation. michelle obama, thank you so much for speaking to us at bbc 100 women. thank you for being here, it's my pleasure. we're here to talk about the work you are doing to end child marriage along with amal clooney and melinda french gates. why is that an issue that is important to you personally? 0h...i have said this time and time again. i see myself in the girls that we are fighting for. you know, i see my daughters in those girls. if we just...put ourselves in those girls�* shoes and think of, how would we feel if it were us or our daughters that were married off at the age of 12 or ten or however old, and their dreams, their opportunities and aspirations were cut off completely, married to an older man, forced to start having children way before their time, any of us would be outraged at the thought. and if it were our children or grandchildren, we would move heaven and earth to make sure that that didn�*t happen, we would make sure we were protecting our daughters and our granddaughters. and i can�*t...not feel that for every girl around the world. i remember i met some young girls in ethiopia a number of years ago, and they were between ages nine and 11. i mean, you look at a 9—year—old — that is a child~ _ we think of a 15—year—old still and she is a young adolescent, but a nine or 11—year—old is a child~ _ and they told their stories of how they would go out to fetch water and they would come home and there was this arranged marriage. they would try to run away and they couldn't. we don't have an international. system that can prevent this type of behaviour against women and against girls, then - at least we should try - and punish it when it happens, and through punishment, try to deter it. _ but the large—scale international organisations that we have that. are supposed to be dealing with this, like the un - security council, and like powerful governments, i they are not delivering. and so i think philanthropy- and individual lawyers can play and have to play a larger role. how urgent an issue would you call this? because the un has said this will take 300 years to end. that is a scary figure. 300 years is not a tolerable timeframe. this is an urgent issue. the health of women and girls on this planet measures the health of our planet. women and girls are at the core of everything that happens to us, and we can do better. you know? this is an issue that can be solved tomorrow if all the world leaders got together and made it a priority — it wouldn�*t take 300 years, it could happen in less than a generation. it's about unshackling half - the population in every country. so if you want to make progress i on human rights, you have to start with the rights of girls. child marriage in particular. is the root cause of so many problems that we see - because if a girl is married off at 12 or 13, and we met - many of them who have been, she is more likely to not. graduate from high school, she is more likely to not— graduate from high school, get a job and be economically independent, she is more likely to suffer- violence, and she is more likely to have health issues, - including unsafe pregnancies. so if you are able to tackle that, you also are going to _ have a knock—on effect - in all of these other areas. as part of their visit, the trio have attended a school in central malawi, in a district where one third of girls fall pregnant under 18. they are collaborating to fund local projects, with the aim of keeping more girls in school. when i was your age, there were people in my community that didn�*t think a girl like me, who didn�*t have money or wealth or connections, could do the things that i did. i even had my second—form teacher tell me that i shouldn�*t apply to the colleges i applied to, because she didn�*t think i could get him. so i ignored her and i applied to princeton, i got in, and i went to law school and became a lawyer, and i have worked at a university, i have run an ngo, i have done all sorts of things. so i know that there are so many girls like all of us all over the world, where people are underestimating them, they�*re telling us what we can�*t do, and i refuse to let any girls feel that they are not worthy of the investment because i know what�*s inside of you. one of the things you have done as part of your work and advocacy is visit malawi, and you were in a district that has very high rates of child marriage, and you went to a school there, you met young girls there. what surprised you most about that visit? i can�*t say at this stage that i�*m surprised, because i have travelled around the world and i have seen girls like these everywhere. but what brings me the mostjoy, inspires me, gives me optimism, is the light that is still in their eyes, the smiles on theirface, the...the hunger that they have to make their lives better. you would think that you�*d walk into a school like that and there would be a lull, a dullness, a depression. there are a lot of people who might assume a lot of negative things about schools like the ludzi school. but you walk into those schools and you see power, you see intellect, you see ambition. so it shouldn�*t be surprising, it isn�*t for me, but that is why it is important for us to go to those schools. you are lucky enough to be invited into a lot of important rooms and you get to meet lawmakers and prime ministers and presidents. could you share with us the kind of conversations you have when you are advocating for the rights of girls? i'm really advocating, when i'm advocating to prime ministers or presidents, it is about helping them understand why investing in their girls is actually investing in their own economy. literally, by investing in a girl, she will go on to be a healthy woman, she will raise healthy children, they get educated, and they create economic opportunity. they are adding to the economy. i absolutely, if i go into a president or prime minister's office and he has daughters, believe me, italk about his daughters. quite often, they are educating their own daughters, but then, you have to get them to think, what would be the barriers if you did this other thing, or it was looked at in this way? so you have to make the humanitarian argument, but often, to really get them to act, it is the numbers that move them, and that isjust the truth. and so i will make either argument or both — whichever one is going to move the dial, that's the one i'm going to make. until you can make the case, have the numbers and actually show the data of how much their economy will increase, unless you can make the case with data, you don't have a good argument in these sort of situations. so we have learned to collect the data in many places, and it shows us and the advocates how and where to work too. because you might have it in parts of the country, but not in others. so the data here is really important. is this a problem that can be solved, is this an unsolvable problem that we�*re facing? i don't think it's unsolvable but, yes, it's 12 million a year, - it's over 120 million child brides in sub—saharan africa alone, i in countries like bangladesh, . it's more than 50% of girls that are married off before they're 18. so the stunting in the growth of each of these societies - isjust shocking. | but you just, you either bury your| head in the sand or you think, 0k, here is the piece that i can tackle. and i think using messaging to bring people on board is important. - so maybe someone is not- going to empathise with the plight of a girl in malawi, _ but if you show them that solving child marriage is going to have... have a really positive i impact on the economy, maybe that will be the thing. there are several states in the us that don�*t have a minimum age of getting married. and that would be a surprise to a lot of people. no, this is a global issue. and you know...no, there are not dowries in the united states, but, you know, taking advantage of young girls can look like many things, it can take on many different forms. we tend to think that poverty and people who are disadvantaged, that it looks like a certain, it has a certain look. it�*s a corrugated roof, it�*s a mud hut, it�*s a, you know, it�*s a place without running water or sewage. but abuse and neglect and underinvestment can happen in some of the shiniest cities in the world. almost everyone we speak to says that poverty is the number—one issue for child marriage. it�*s to make sure that their daughters can eat, have a life. but an issue as big as poverty doesn�*t feel like it�*s an issue that we can solve. is this an unsolvable problem? is this too big for us to tackle? this is a solvable problem. the rates are coming down when real work gets done. it's really a social norm problem, it's that — first of all, if you are a family that is in poverty and so let's say you are scraping by and you don't have food in the house, why do they think about selling the girl child? why aren't they thinking about selling the boy? why is it acceptable to sell your daughter for $15 and it is not acceptable to sell your son? are you really looking for a better life for her, or are you looking for a better life for your family? and quite often, when you really spend time with these families, they're trying to feed the other children in the family, but they're valuing their sons, is the truth, more than their daughters. the only way to change social norms is at the community level. you get the community thinking differently about the girls. when you get enough villages standing up and saying no, then you start to bring the rates down. and that kind of social change takes educating everybody, figuring out who the leaders can be that can stand up, but it takes a family and a community to stand up. 0ur foundation, we wage justice, and we say it's waging _ because you can't just assume it's going to happen. - you sort of have to form alliances. and really fight against these kinds of injustices with the determination that it takes to win a war. - and one of the things we see in malawi is it's notjust- about changing the law on paper, i because actually, malawi's lawsl are fairly progressive when it comes to girls' rights. - but it's about access to justice — what is the point of having - a beautiful constitution that - protects girls from child marriage, if the girls who are victims of this don't know about it? _ so we formed a network . of mobile legal aid clinics, which means literally, - there is a van that goes out with lawyers and we go _ out in a community and say to girls, "these are your rights, and if you need a lawyer for free to protect you, i that's what we are here to provide". it�*s illegal to marry under the age of 18 in malawi. but since the law was introduced six years ago, there have been very few prosecutions. this is actually the first time we've been able to reach - this part of malawi. we are focusing on child marriage because we know this is a big - problem in this part of malawi. 0utreach is one practical solution. her foundation fundsfemale lawyers across the continent, including the women lawyers�* association of malawi. we are going to try and meet - with as many people as we can this afternoon, including in private sessions, | but you can also call the _ women lawyers' association of malawi any time byjust dialling 3081. - and it was extraordinary, _ we were in an area we had never been able to reach before in malawi, i this was the first legal clinic. dealing with child marriage, we didn't know anyone - was going to show up, and 1,200 people did. | and we had so many follow—on| consultations during the course of the afternoon, where girls said "i'm 14, i have a child, what can i do?" - and lawyers were taking down their details. - that is the issue, isn�*t it? because the law is there, but there is still such a high rate of child marriage. exactly. and the marriage happens in an informal setting, with a tribal chief and a parent... exactly, i think the law. is a part of the solution, so the first thing was for malawi to change its laws, so it said - the right thing on paper, - and it did and the rate has gone down since then, but not enough. so giving people access to the courts, and this. is what we do, is fight for girls' rights in the courtroom, - that is going to be a big piece, - but we are not naive enough to think that this is the only piece. we have to form alliances, - so at this clinic in malawi, we also had tribal leaders there, - they helped us to convene people and they're going to be helpful as part of the solution. we have had many chiefs, female chiefs, actually, - over 100 of them got together in malawi and said, "we will annul i any traditional marriage that hasl taken place with a child." there is one in particular, _ chief kachindamoto, who has annulled so many child marriages - that they call her the terminator. there is a lot that follows you when you come, and then there is a lot of attention that goes and shines a light on the girls, and then, when you leave, it�*s almost like the light can kind of leave that environment. and do you think about — because these are communities that have been badly let down as well. mm. do you wonder what... i think about that every day. and one of the — one of the ways that i can personally control that is to make sure that those kind of interactions aren�*t a one—and—done kind of thing. i learnt that in the very first solo trip that i took as first lady. i went to the elizabeth garrett anderson school in islington, in london. and i think my husband was there for a g summit, i don�*t know, it all gets blurry, but i said i wanted to be out of the community, i don�*t want to sit in the hotel with the rest of the white house press, i want to go out and see what�*s happening. so i spent the day at this amazing school, comprised mostly of immigrant girls, and i spent the day. and at the time, what i�*m travelling around with is nothing compared to what was travelling around with me when i was first lady. i had a brilliant day with these amazing young girls. and i felt what you felt — like we turned the school upside down and it was a powerful day, but that isn�*t enough. we have to stay connected to these girls. and so, we did. we set up calls, we invited some of the girls to the white house. what i can do is make sure that it�*s notjust a one—time thing, because i understand what you understand — that these girls have been let down a lot. and i don�*t want to be another let—down for them. like, i can�*t fix their problems, but i can be the person that comes back again and again and again, in big ways and in small ways. so that�*s something i think about. every time i interact with the child on a big way, it can�*t be a one—time opportunity. we can�*t just be another disappointment. and another thing that you did in malawi was you went to a school and you gave a speech on stage at a school, and you said a couple of things that — that stuck with me. one of them was that you said, you know, "the lesson i had was that i went to school and university and got a career and got married later in life." could you speak to how the girls reacted? i think the message was, you should have the choice. and i said, "you should decide whether to have a family, when to have a family, who you want to marry, what kind of work you want to do." and they were very ambitious, and i was really impressed with them. they might not want to wait till their late—305, but they will have, you know, more freedom than they have now. we�*ve had a decade of talking about the girl boss, you know, the singular woman who knocks down barriers, but not really sort of women working together. do you think this new decade is more about us sharing our resources as women and creating a new momentum? women, ithink, naturally work in collectives. i see it over and over again. i have spoken to a number of women older than me who might have made it as ceo or might have made it as cfo in their company, and there is some regret that they didn�*t do it in concert with other women, they didn�*t pull other women up and along with them. and ijust — i see the generation that at least i have been a part of — and michelle and i are essentially the same age — we have always wanted to pull everybody along with us. so i think it is a myth — an easy myth that people like to have that, "oh, the singular girl boss" — there is nothing we don�*t do in teams. i studied computer science in college. it�*s a myth to think it�*s one white guy coding. in computer science, we all worked in teams, it�*s teams that create new things. if we can come together as a threesome, instead of one plus one plus one equals three, we will have one plus one plus one has this multiplier effect of six, seven, eight, nine, because we�*re doing the same strands of work, but also putting together. yes, we can use our platform, we can get people to see the issue, but it really comes down to these grassroots organisations — the ones you saw in malawi — doing the work on the ground, us advocating for the change, bringing funding, getting others to fund this work, and then working the legal system to make sure there are more lawyers who actually get all the way up into court and get the perpetrators injail, right? then we need safe places for those girls when they come out of a marriage to be and to have economic opportunity. but it can happen. when i meet these young lawyers, like the ones we worked with across the continent, when i teach at columbia law school, when i talk to my students, i see a generation very determined to be, you know, much better than we have been on the advocacy, be it on climate change or human rights issues, and they will be agents of change. i didn't know the things that they already know. i wasn't politically savvy or active or engaged, really, until i was, sort of, well into my 205, i would say. these guys are young and informed and, you know, that gives me hope that we can also accelerate the pace of change. there will be a lot of people listening to this and watching this and reading this saying, "this is not my problem, child marriage is nothing to do with me, it�*s not in my community, i can�*t see this, i don�*t need to engage with this." what would you say to those people? 0h... this investment in women and girls is all of our issue. and it impacts us. in the united states, we are dealing with a rollback in reproductive rights — things that people thought they could take for granted, things that my girls thought that they could take for granted, that they would have the choice of their own reproductive health. that has been rolled back. and a lot of it is because of the devaluation of women, the belief that women don�*t have choice and power over their own being. that�*s what is happening here. when a ten—year—old is sold off to an older man because a family is poor, it�*s the same mentality, it�*s the same carelessness, the same selfishness, the same greed and thoughtlessness that exists everywhere. so you can�*tjust turn a blind eye to it because it isn�*t happening in your own back yard, because eventually, that kind of attitude, it has a way of slipping and growing and feeding into all aspects of how we live as a human — as a human species. it affects our humanity. so we all have to care. that�*s what i would say. hello. 0ur chilly spell of late—autumn weather is going to continue through the rest of today and for much of the week ahead as well, with temperatures below average. we have seen some early brightness around across northern and eastern areas, but through the rest of today, it is going to be clouding over for most of us, with rain edging its way in, all courtesy of this area of low pressure you can see coming in from the atlantic, bumping into higher pressure towards the south—east, so any rainfall tending to peter out. best of the dry and bright weather will be across parts of highland scotland. blue skies and sunshine here, colder air moving into the northern isles, with some showers. and then we�*ve got some rain across northern ireland, wales, the south—west of england, too. much of eastern england, as well as scotland, stays dry, with some brightness around. but temperatures not doing great, only about four to six degrees for most of us here. but we�*re getting into double figures towards the west. now, through this evening and tonight, that area of rain continues its progress eastwards. so some wet weather for parts of east anglia, for instance, also northern england, parts of northern ireland seeing some rain overnight, colderairworking into the north of that. so another cold, frosty night to come across parts of scotland, but milder further south, where you�*ve got the cloud and the outbreaks of rain. so through tomorrow morning, we start with that rain across parts of england and wales. it�*ll slowly clear towards the south—east. to the north of that, a cold northerly wind, blustery conditions around coastal parts of eastern scotland, north—east england, with a few showers, a touch wintry over the highest ground, but rain at low levels further south and west. some brighter weather developing later in the day. heading on into tuesday, and we�*re going to be between weather systems as that area of low pressure clears away towards the east. so we�*ve got the breeze coming in from a northerly direction, again, bringing a few showers across the north—east of scotland, around the east coast of england, and perhaps a few around some of these irish sea coasts as well. but for the bulk of the uk, it�*s looking like a predominantly dry day on tuesday, with some sunshine, although not feeling particularly warm. top temperatures between about four to nine degrees on tuesday. into the middle of the week, then, we�*ve still generally got the cold air mass with us, but we�*ll see areas of low pressure that for a time will introduce something a little bit milder and wetter too. but generally, the outlook through the rest of the week into next weekend, is for temperatures to remain below average, between about four to six degrees for most of us. some wet weather, mostly falling as rain, i think for most of us. but there could be a little bit of sleet and snow over the highest ground, largely in the north of the uk. bye— bye. live from tel aviv, this is bbc news. day three of the truce in gaza appears to be holding — as more israeli hostages are expected to be released in exchange for palestinian prisoners. this is the scene live at the rafah crossing — israeli officials are preparing for the release of more hostages. the white house says it has reason to believe a us citizen will be among those freed today. and this is the scene live at 0fer prison in the west bank, where more palestinian prisoners are expected to be freed — so far, 78 have been released from israeli prisons. in london — i�*m azadeh moshiri with the other main stories. here in the capital, a march organised by the campaign against anti—semitism is taking place, to show solidarity with thejewish community in the uk. and the former england football player and manager terry venables has died at the age of 80, after a long illness. hello, you�*re watching bbc news and we are live in tel aviv. hello, you�*re watching bbc news and we are live in tel aviv. it�*s day three of the truce in gaza. israel has informed the families of the hostages expected to be released in a third round of exchanges with hamas later today. his names are on that list, it normally happens around this time of day, so we are watching and waiting for any updates from normally the red cross, the neutral intermediary who actually transport the hostages