(Freetown) The Sierra Leonean parliament this week adopted a bill banning child marriage, a vote hailed as “historic” by the NGO Save the Children in a country where hundreds of thousands of girls are married before being 18 years old.
“Sierra Leone has adopted a historic bill” banning child marriage “after a campaign to criminalize this widespread practice,” Save the Children rejoiced in a press release published Friday, the day after the adoption.
Information Minister Chernor Bah spoke on social media of a “huge breakthrough”.
The text should be promulgated in the coming weeks by President Julius Maada Bio before coming into force, according to a source at the presidency contacted by AFP.
The law will criminalize the marriage of girls under 18 and expose offenders to at least 15 years in prison and a fine of at least 50,000 leones (2,083 euros).
It prohibits cohabitation with a minor and provides compensation for victims of early marriage and young women who become pregnant as part of such a union.
Victims of early marriage “suffer lifelong damage to their physical and mental health; are deprived of opportunities to learn, grow, play and develop; and excluded from future educational and economic opportunities,” underlines Patrick Analo, director for Save the Children in Sierra Leone, in the NGO’s press release.
In Sierra Leone, 800,000 brides were under 18 in 2017, and among them 400,000 were under 15, according to UNICEF data. The current population of the country is almost 9 million.
“This bill is not for any political party, but for Sierra Leone,” argued Mariama Munia Zombo, one of the MPs who initiated it, during the parliamentary debate.
The frequency of early marriages has been declining slightly for several decades in Sierra Leone.
According to UNICEF, 30% of girls were married before they were 18e birthday in 2017, compared to 37% 25 years earlier.