Child marriage, which seems to be on the rise in parts of Africa, has often been attributed to tradition and religion. Islam tends to support what Western civilization and spiritual pundits see as an anomaly.
The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, understandably frowns at it, too. It has warned that it will take over 100 years to end child marriage in West and Central Africa due to high population growth and prevalence of the practice. According to a report released by UNICEF, four in 10 women in West and Central Africa are married before the age of 18 and one in three of these are married before the age of 15.
The UN body said six of the 10 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world – Niger, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea – are in the region. UNICEF said five countries in the region – Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Togo, Ghana and Rwanda – have seen the practice decline by 40 to 60 per cent over the past 25 years.
Life-altering consequences for millions of child brides will be accompanied by a crippling impact on the region’s prosperity, the report concluded.
UNICEF said even a doubling of the current rate of decline in child marriages would not be sufficient to reduce the number of girls marrying each year. “We need to shake ourselves up,” said Fatoumata Ndiaye, UNICEF’s deputy executive director. “We cannot continue to let so many of our girls miss out on their health, education and childhood. At current rates, our report shows, it will take over 100 years to eliminate child marriage in the region: how is this acceptable?”
The report comes as a meeting on how to end child marriage is slated to be held by experts in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, this Friday.
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, the government has completed drafting a bill, which outlaws child marriages in line with the provisions of the Constitution, newly appointed Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Retired Major-General Happyton Bonyongwe, has said. Addressing Beitbridge residents during an advocacy meeting held last week, Minister Bonyongwe said the Bill had been sent to Cabinet for approval. The meeting was held to outline the scope of the constitution, which came into effect in 2013.
Minister Bonyongwe said the initiative would put into legislation the Constitutional Court ruling of January 20, 2016 barring child marriages. “Government is equally worried with the upsurge in cases of child marriages and an upsurge on issues of sexual abuse against minors and the girl-child,” he said. “We have set in motion the processes to bring legislative tools that will accelerate the administration of justice on issues where child marriage and abuse of our children is concerned. Soon after approval by Cabinet, we will take the bill to Parliament for further action.”
Minister Bonyongwe said Government was working on another bill with proposed life sentence for those convicted for sexually abusing minors. He said those caught outside the law for raping adult women would be jailed for at least 40 years. “The other part of the proposal is to have those convicted of rape and willful transmission of HIV and AIDS to the survivors should be jailed for at least 40 years,” he said. “The need to create a peaceful society where sexual abuse is outlawed cannot be over-emphasized.”
Government, he said, made significant progress in terms of aligning the laws with the Constitution and was looking at completing the process by the end of next year.
