LUSAKA — The Sadc Parliamentary Forum has mobilised financial and technical resources to develop a model law on child marriage as member states raise the ante against the malpractice that affects millions of girl children in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
BY Staff Writer
Sadc-PF Secretary-general Esau Chiviya told a two-day national follow-up workshop on child marriage laws in Zambia yesterday that several partners were supportive of the initiative.
He said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had made a commitment to provide technical support for the development of a position paper, while United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) provided financial support towards securing the services of a legal drafter.
“Sadc PF is grateful to all the partners that have come on board . We hope that other partners will come on board to support this noble cause,” Chiviya said.
He said globally, a staggering 15 million girls were married as children every year. More than 720 million women were married before their 18th birthday with approximately one in three of them having entered marriage union before the age of 15 years.
“Closer home in Southern Africa, child marriage is a major problem with some of our countries reporting disturbingly high prevalence rates, in some cases of up to 50% as in the case of Mozambique and 40% right here in Zambia where we are meeting in order to come up with a legislative instrument to curb the problem. Whichever way you look at it, this is an abomination!” he said.
A resolution of the 35th Sadc PF Plenary Assembly held in Mauritius recently called for concerted efforts to eradicate child marriages in the region. After that resolution, the Sadc PF, the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) and Plan 18+ Zambia Sub-Regional Group convened a regional dialogue of child marriages from February, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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The dialogue ended by adopting a Six Step Road Map proposed by Chiviya towards the development of a model law that would contribute towards ending child marriages by providing Sadc countries with the necessary Reference information.
While hailing stakeholders for meeting yesterday to exchange notes after the commitments made in Johannesburg, Chiviya expressed concern over the fact that the majority of Sadc countries were still far from effectively and boldly dealing with child marriages despite its negative consequences.
“Child marriage is an extremely devastating phenomenon. It robs girl children of their childhood and denies them the opportunity to benefit meaningfully from formal education thereby condemning them to perpetual poverty,” he said. “It exposes affected children to gender-based violence, HIV and Aids, fistula, and pregnancy-related complications including death while giving life.”
Chiviya saluted some African countries that were showing leadership by developing or passing relevant laws aimed at ending child marriages. In February 2015, Malawi Parliament passed the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill which raised the legal marriage age from 15 to 18 years old. Previously, 50% of girls in Malawi were married before the age of 18 years.
The Zambian government has launched a multi-sectoral approach to address child marriage and teenage pregnancy. The approach has seen traditional leaders playing active and prominent roles while the private sector has also come on board.
“In Zimbabwe, reports reaching us indicate that some parliamentarians have voiced their objection to child marriages. This is very encouraging. The more the merrier!” Chiviya said.
