- Watch video of Sierra Leone’s Fist Lady and other women celebrating
Sierra Leone’s parliament has approved a law outlawing child marriage in a development lauded by activists as a major win for children’s rights.
The new bill —The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024.—includes provisions for enforcing penalties on offenders, protecting victims’ rights, and ensuring access to education and support services for young girls affected by child marriage.
The law criminalizes marrying girls under 18 years of age. and even prescribes jail terms of up to 15 years for offenders.
One-third of all girls are married before their 18th birthday in the west African country, according to UNICEF. Sierra Leone is home to 800,000 child brides, 400,000 of whom were married before age 15, the UN body says.
Often due to poverty, many girls in Sierra Leone fail to stay in school. They are then married off by their families in a bid to improve their financial situations or to pay off debt.
About The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024
Girlsnotbrides.org reports that in Sierra Leone, 30% of girls are married before the age of 18, and 9% of girls are married before the age of 15.
Previously, under the Child Rights Act 2007 the minimum legal age of marriage was set at 18 years, however this was contradicted by the Customary Marriage and Divorce Act 2009, which allows underage children to be married off with parental consent and does not stipulate a minimum age of marriage.
The passing of The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill 2024 represents a harmonisation of these laws, ensuring 18 years old as the minimum legal age of marriage. The new bill include provisions for enforcing penalties on offenders, protecting victims’ rights, and ensuring access to education and support services for young girls affected by early child marriage.
“The passing of this bill represents a vital step forward in addressing child, early and forced marriages in Sierra Leone. Furthermore, the provision of support services to affected girls and access to education are essential so that girls are protected and are not negatively impacted by criminalisation. This bill and the provision of support services will allow girls to live happily, safely and reach their full potential”– Fatou Gueye Ndir, Senior Regional Engagement and Advocacy Officer, Girls Not Brides
About child marriage laws
Changing the law to make 18 the minimum age for marriage without exceptions complements changes in national law passed in 2023 guaranteeing 13 years of free schooling. Child marriage laws are important, but evidence available shows that to create the conditions essential for girls and women to be socially, economically and politically independent, free, and able to make informed choices about marriage, their bodies, education and employment, child marriage laws need to be accompanied by government investment in gender-transformative services and policies, and collaboration with civil society to transform the attitudes and social norms that systematically devalue girls. This comprehensive approach is needed to address the root causes of child marriage and gender inequality, and to ensure the law fulfils its intention to provide support for girls affected by or at risk of child marriage.
Available evidence shows that criminalisation of child marriage can have unintended – and negative – consequences for adolescent girls, their families and children. This underscores the need for laws and approaches to justice to be part of a comprehensive approach to address the structural drivers of child marriage and includes services and support for girls who are already married. This is endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council recommendation to States[1] regarding legal approaches that criminalise child marriage.
Watch video of Sierra Leone First Lady and others celebrating the passage of the bill.
Credits: Girlsnotbrides.org /Africanews.com/bellanaija
