On 6 February 2022, PGA President, Hon. Kasthuri Patto, MP (Malaysia) called on Ms. Rina Mohd Harun, the new Malaysian Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, to follow through with the initiative to eradicate child marriages in the country and report to the Parliament on the progress of the National Strategy Plan in Handling Causes of Child Marriage from 15 January 2020 until today.

As a minister, Rina must muster the courage to lobby, convince and advocate that she is on the side of children and not play politics for her own political survival.

She should include lawmakers from both sides of the aisle,  as well as those from civil society, SUHAKAM, the Malaysian Bar Council, UNICEF, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and many others to be partners in her campaign to end child marriages in Malaysia.

PGA’s Campaign to End Early and Forced Child Marriage (CEFM) aims to build the capacity of parliamentarians by providing them with tools to become leaders in defending and promoting the human rights of girls and women, thereby enabling the effective monitoring, financing, and implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, particularly its target 5.3 on ending harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage.

PGA welcomes and supports Hon. Patto’s parliamentary prerogatives to oversee the implementation of plans that end child marriage and early unions in Malaysia.

To read Hon. Patto’s Opinion piece, please click here.