As part of the main drivers of the BAM Group of Companies, this being the umbrella company within which Informative Newspaper operates, alongside sister brands Finite Magazine, Finite Lifestyle Club, Bam Promotions and Twin Talk, Informative Newspaper takes particular interest in social issues and causes created to advance the development of young girls and women and their participation in the global space.

To advance and cement the organization’s support for women and young girls, the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights is today, through this issue introduced. Its purpose is to advance knowledge and create further awareness on developments surrounding the said community sector and to help audiences stay updated on such, further guiding means of both action and reaction to these developments.

This week we discuss child marriage,

Child marriage is a formal marriage or informal union where one or both parties are below 18 years old. In sub-Saharan Africa, 39% of girls are married before they reach 18 and three SADC countries, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique, are numbered amongst the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage globally. Boys are also married as children, but girls are disproportionately affected and are seven times more likely to be married as children. Child marriage has far-reaching, negative consequences on the lives of girls and later, women: it undermines their human rights to education, reproductive health, to live lives free from violence and entrenches gender inequality. This in turn impacts on society and undermines the ability of countries to achieve development goals.

International and regional human rights obligations

Many SADC countries have ratified international and regional human rights instruments that oblige

them to take steps to protect and promote the rights of girls. These include their rights to equality,

non-discrimination, education, health and protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, as

well as free and full consent to marriage, to choose one’s spouse and to access to information.

International and regional human rights instruments include rights that support efforts to end

child marriage:

•           The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Protocol on the Rights of

Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development state that the minimum age of marriage should be 18 years. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child defines child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys as a harmful social and cultural practice and the Maputo Protocol places obligations on states to eradicate harmful practices that undermine the human rights of women;

•           The CRC Committee has taken a clear position on 18 as the minimum marriage age, regardless of parental consent; and

•           The CEDAW recommends that women and men be given equal rights to marry only with free and full consent, and the Maputo Protocol states that no marriage should take place without the free and full consent of both parties.

In addition to their legal obligations under international human rights laws, SADC countries have also committed to achieve the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals. These goals aim to end extreme poverty, eliminate inequality and injustice and address climate change by 2030.

Target 5.3 of the SDGs commits Member States to “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations” by 2030.

AU Campaign to end child marriage

#EndChildMarriageNow In 2014, the AU launched a campaign to end child marriage. The campaign encourages African governments to address the detrimental consequences of child marriage and to develop laws, policies and actions that protect girls’ human rights. By August 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar and Malawi had launched national campaigns to end child marriage.

The SADC-PF Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage, adopted in 2016, provides guidance to SADC countries on the ideal laws and policies to end child marriage and to protect those already in a child marriage. It recommends that the age of consent to marriage be 18 years, without exception. It also recommends that countries enact laws and policies to:

•           Prohibit child betrothals;

•           Provide for legal aid to victims of child marriage and custody and maintenance of children of prohibited marriages;

•           Provide for the legitimacy of children born of child marriages;

•           Provide for programmes to delay marriage;

•           Provide for places of safety for victims of child marriage;

•           Provide for awareness on children’s rights and the consequences of child marriage;

•           Provide for the establishment of an anti-child marriage fund to enable implementation of the laws; and

•           Provide for effective enforcement of the laws.

Child marriage in SADC

Various SADC countries have set a minimum marriage age in their laws. Not all of these are consistent with the internationally recommended minimum age of 18 years and in some cases, these laws discriminate between boys and girls, with a lower minimum age provided for girls. In many countries, customary and religious laws that allow for marriage at different ages may conflict with national laws, which are often not well enforced.

Drivers of child marriage

Child marriage is caused and exacerbated by various factors:

Poverty: Poverty is a significant cause of child marriage, and girls from poor families are almost twice as likely to marry early than those from wealthier families. Marrying a girl may help a family to reduce household expenses because they have one less mouth to feed, or gain income when dowry is paid by the groom’s family. Some families believe they can provide a better future for their daughters by marrying them into wealthier families. Many girls may see marriage as their only pathway out of poverty.

Customary practices and religious beliefs: Child marriage may be part of a community’s culture or religious practice that has taken place for hundreds of years. Gender inequality, patriarchy and social expectations about the roles of women and girls in society, often shaped by tradition, and practices such as the payment of dowry, help to perpetuate child marriage.

Lack of access to primary and secondary education: Access to education appears to protect girls from child marriage, giving them skills and knowledge and more power to choose to delay marriage. Girls with no education are three times more likely to marry than those with secondary or higher education.

Poor commitment to end child marriage: In some countries, there is little commitment from national and traditional leaders to end child marriage. There are frequently gaps in legal and policy frameworks that limit protection and undermine efforts to eradicate child marriage, including no or inconsistent legal definitions of a child, no or low minimum marriage ages, no mandatory birth and marriage registration and domestic and sexual violence laws that fail to criminalise marital rape. Where there are laws against child marriage, these are not well known or enforced, and may conflict with customary laws, which allow child marriage.

Harmful consequences of child marriage

Child marriage has far-reaching, negative consequences. Research shows that it limits or ends girls’ education, undermining their ability to earn a living and leaving them economically dependent on their husbands and in-laws. It also makes them increasingly vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse and has long term and sometimes chronic health consequences related to early pregnancy and child-birth.

Health: Child marriage has devastating consequences for girls’ SRH. Pregnancy-related complications are among the leading causes of death for girls aged 15 to 19 and babies born to girls under 20 in lowand middle-income countries are 50% more likely to be still-born or to die within a few weeks. Girls who marry early become sexually active at a time when they may have limited information or power to make decisions about their SRH and unprotected sex places them at increased risk of HIV, STIs and unwanted pregnancy.

Education: Girls are frequently forced to leave school when they get married or become pregnant because of marital or domestic demands on their time or because their families do not allow them to continue their education. Married or pregnant girls and young mothers are often stigmatised by their peers, teachers and/or school officials. In some SADC countries, married girls and young mothers may be legally excluded from school.

Gender-based violence (GBV): Child marriage puts girls at risk of sexual, physical and psychological violence. Girls who marry early are more likely to experience domestic abuse and to report that their first sexual experience was forced. They are often in an unequal power relationship, with little ability to assert themselves against their older husbands. Research also shows that girls in marriages with a large age gap between the girl and her husband are more vulnerable to domestic and sexual violence.

What can parliamentarians do to help end child marriage?

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