WOMEN and girls’ rights defender, Equality Now, has called on Zimbabwe and other Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries to address the region’s rising cases of child marriages.
The call was made in a statement during Equality Now’s Southern Africa People’s Summit held in Madagascar.
The summit ran the theme Strengthening Protection and Support Mechanisms for Survivors of Child Marriage.
It was organised by Equality Now in collaboration with several organisations, including Plan International and the Sadc Parliamentary Forum.
“Child marriage remains an urgent human rights issue in the southern Africa region,” Equality Now said.
“The current rate and pace of progress towards ending child marriage in the region disturbingly continue to be slow.
“Despite there being clarity on the minimum age of marriage at 18, failure to align national laws comprehensively with the Sadc model law to end child marriage has translated to incongruent legal provisions in various Sadc countries.”
In 2024, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Criminal Laws Amendment (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Act 2024 into law to aid the fight against child marriages.
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However, rights defenders continue to decry the “uncontrolled” rise in child marriages in the country.
Equality Now pointed to the failure to comprehensively align national laws with the Sadc model law, creating legal loopholes.
“Additionally, a lag in the implementation of laws, coupled with nominal interventions to address the drivers of child marriages, has meant prevalence rates have remained high,” the right’s group noted.
“It is for this reason that Equality Now continues to call for accelerated action to end child marriages and protect girls from sexual and gender-based violence, and other effects of these harmful practices now, not 200 years later (which is when the latest research by Unicef shows child marriages will end in the region based on current progress).”
The group’s concerns were recently echoed by Laura Nyirinkindi, chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group.
She flagged government’s “poor” response, noting that despite the new law, enforcement remains weak with no prosecutions.
