The Hague/New York/Harare, 20 January 2016 - Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) praises the decision of the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe to abolish child marriage and commends the work of Ms. Jessie Majome, MP Zimbabwe & Chair of PGA’s National Group in Parliament, for her continuous legislative efforts to ending child marriage.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court struck down section 22(1) of the Marriage Act which allowed girls to marry at 16 and boys at 18 declaring it unconstitutional. The decision on this case, which was brought in 2014 by two then teenagers forced to marry when they became pregnant, provides an equal minimum legal age of marriage for boys and girls at 18. According to a Human Rights Watch report published last year, in 2014 one in three women ages 20 to 49 reported being married before age 18 and an estimated 4 percent married before age 15.
PGA Member Jessie Majome, MP noted that this constitutional decision was a prominent step in the right direction, but that more needed to be done to make this decision a reality:
“The Constitutional Court ruling is a victory for the rights of children in Zimbabwe. It will provide much needed impetus to the executive to implement the May 2013 constitutional bar on child marriages. It also dovetails well into efforts of PGA inspired draft Bill on eliminating all opportunities for child marriages, not only in the Marriage Act that the Court ruled on, but also on customary marriages. The ruling has come at an opportune moment when I await an appointment from the Vice President, who is also Minister of Justice to present the Bill to him, for him to hopefully bring it to Parliament so that we can make the Constitutional Court ruling a reality.”
PGA’s Global Parliamentary Campaign to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) aims to accelerate regional and international efforts to eliminate CEFM by sensitizing parliamentarians on the rights of girls in line with human rights norms and standards, as well as to build and capitalize on political will at the national level to strengthen the legal framework and promote its implementation.
In the framework of this Campaign, Ms. Majome, MP adopted a Statement of Commitment to End CEFM at PGA’s Parliamentary Seminar on Combatting CEFM, in Accra, Ghana in 2014. She has since contributed her knowledge and experience, as a parliamentarian and a human rights advocate, to raise awareness about this harmful practice among her peers, nationally and internationally, and to promote a more comprehensive and efficient legislation on girls’ rights in her country.