Unicef wants more to be done to protect girls from child marriages

Talent Gore
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has urged the country to invest more on women empowerment in order to protect girls from child marriages.

Unicef states that one in three women in Zimbabwe, aged 20 to 49 years, are married before the ages of 18, while five percent of girls are married before turning 15.

Unicef hailed the recent Constitutional Court judgment to outlaw child marriages and the increase of the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 years. In a statement last week, Unicef said support of behavioural change programmes in communities will also assist women to realise their full potential.

“Ending child marriages in Zimbabwe and protecting girls against the negative consequences of early marriage needs more than only legislation,” the statement said.

“It needs behavioural change in the communities, community leaders and influential elderly women are called to advocate in their communities against child marriages.

“To end child marriages, the perception of the role of women in society needs to change.”

Unicef and its partners called for people in Zimbabwe to understand that the role of women should not be reduced to being mothers.

Women need to be given the possibility to develop their full potential as equal members of society.

“In Zimbabwe, one woman aged 20-24 out of four women gives birth before the age of 18 years,” the statement read.

“Exacerbated by COVID-19 restrictions and the mandatory school closures, Zimbabwe has recently experienced an increase in teenage pregnancies.

“One-third of maternal deaths occur among adolescents.”

Unicef also added that poverty is a major common factor between child abuse and exploitation, including child marriage.

“Girls in the poorest communities are six times more likely to experience child marriage than their counterparts in higher wealth quintiles.”