dyton mupawaenda
Latwell Nyangu
There is a call for accelerated action to end child marriage and protect girls from sexual and gender-based violence in the Southern region.
According to child rights movement, Equality Now, the current rate and pace of progress towards ending child marriage in the region disturbingly continue to be slow.
The organisation is hosting a side event panel to the SADC People’s Summit which started yesterday and will end today focusing on the SADC End Child Marriage Campaign.
The event will convene state, interstate, and non-state actors to assess progress made in advancing the domestication and implementation of the SADC Model Law to End Child Marriage in the region.
This caucus will look at the number of girls married as children, opportunities for legal redress and legal reform, and strategies for full implementation of the law without reservation.
In an interview, during the summit Equality Now, Regional Representative for Southern Africa Sally Ncube said:
“Child Marriage remains an urgent human rights issue in the Southern Africa Region.
“We call for accelerated action to end child marriage and protect our girls from sexual and gender-based violence; and other effects of these harmful practices now, not 200 years later.
“There are limited youth management advocacy initiatives on ending child marriage.
“We plan to take stock of the implementation of the Model Law in the SADC region, highlighting the challenges in implementation.
“We also looking for best practices, and recommendations on how different states and on-state stakeholders can champion collective advocacy to accelerate and strengthen the implementation of SADC ML within the Southern Africa region,” she said.
The session will be Moderated by Sally Ncube, Equality Now’s Regional Representative for Southern Africa and panellists will include:
Some of the panellists include Anne Musiwa Commissioner of the African Committee of Experts on The Rights and Welfare of the Child, Sheuneni Kurasha SADC Parliamentary Forum, Caleb Ng’ombo Executive Director People Serving Girls At Risk from Malawi, Womba Wanki, Executive Director, Generation Alive, Zambia, Judy Gitau, Africa Regional Coordinator, from Equality Now and Felistus Mpho Motimedi-Gazangeni, Child Rights Network of Southern Africa.
After the panel, delegates to the session after deliberating will co-create and frame SADC End Child Marriage and protect children already in or affected by Child Marriage Advocacy Campaign Agenda and provide recommendations to SADC Heads of States.
Founded in 1992, Equality Now works to protect and promote the rights of all women and girls around the world.
Equality Now has been working on preventing child marriage since 1995, calling on governments to enact and enforce laws that prohibit child marriage, as well as advocating for a minimum marriage age of 18, with no exceptions.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter