Sierra Leone formally banned child marriage on Tuesday with President Julius Maada Bio signing into regulation a bill to finish the follow that is still well-liked.
Advocates hope the new regulation will higher give protection to women in Sierra Leone, round a 3rd of whom are married prior to they flip 18, expanding the maternal dying price because of the bodily dangers they face from being pregnant, in keeping with the well being ministry.
Under the regulation, any guy who marries a woman beneath the age of 18 may just face a minimum of 15 years in jail and a effective of round $4,000.
Parents or the ones attending such marriage ceremonies may just additionally face fines.
The U.S. Bureau of African Affairs welcomed the passage of the bill as a “significant milestone (that) not only protects girls but promotes robust human rights protections.”
West and Central Africa has the perfect occurrence of child marriage on the earth and is house to just about 60 million child brides, in keeping with the U.N. kids’s company UNICEF.
A 21-year-old Sierra Leonean former child bride, who asked anonymity, advised Reuters that she used to be pressured into marriage on the age of 14 and used to be taking into account going to courtroom for the reason that new regulation would permit her to record for an annulment.
The regulation must “break the cycle of early marriage and its devastating consequences,” mentioned Human Rights Watch researcher Betty Kabari. “It also sets a pathway forward for other African nations, such as Tanzania and Zambia, to revoke laws that permit child marriage.”
