Mabel van Oranje
Founder, "VOW To End Child Marriage"
Princess Mabel of Orange-Nassau is a prominent human rights activist, widely known for her roles in co-founding War Child Netherlands, the European Council on Foreign Relations, Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage, and for having served as the first Chief Executive Officer of The Elders, a grouping founded by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Kofi Annan. In 2005, the World Economic Forum recognised her as a Young Global Leader. Van Oranje is an advisor to several non-profits, including the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, the Malala Fund, Crisis Action and the Open Society Foundations.
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​Having worked on ending child marriage for the last decade, Mabel van Oranje recently founded "VOW To End Child Marriage". This innovative initiative mobilises the multi-billion wedding sector (couples, companies, local vendors, and the wider public) to generate financial support for grassroots efforts to end child marriage. The initiative's pitch is simple: When a couple says "I do", they can help a girl elsewhere in the world to say "I don’t" or "not yet".