Limit harms of new child marriage prevention law
The Bangladesh government should move quickly to adopt regulations to limit the harms of a new law that legalises child marriage, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
Parliament on February 27 approved a law that permits girls under 18 to marry under “special circumstances,” with permission from their parents and a court.
The law is a devastating step backward for the fight against child marriage in Bangladesh, which has the highest rate of child marriage in Asia, and one of the highest rates in the world, with 52 percent of girls married before the age of 18, and 18 percent before the age of 15, said the rights watchdog in a press release issued in London.
Under the previous law, the legal age of marriage was 18 for women and 21 for men, with no exceptions.
“The focus now must be on containing the damage caused by Bangladesh legalising child marriage,” said Heather Barr, senior researcher on women's rights at HRW. “Nothing can change the fact that this is a destructive law. But carefully drafted regulations can mitigate some of the harm to girls.”
Donors, diplomats, the United Nations, civil society, and activists fought to defeat the law. Now that the law has been passed, the government should ensure that the provision permitting child marriage will be used rarely and carefully, said the release.
According to the HRW, the government previously said the goal of legalising child marriage in “special circumstances” was to respond to situations involving “accidental or unlawful pregnancy” of unmarried girls. Bangladesh has not done enough to help adolescent girls avoid unwanted pregnancies, such as ensuring access to information and services on reproductive health and sexuality.
In a 2015 report, HRW found serious gaps in access to information about family planning, and access to contraception for young people in Bangladesh.
The rights organisation stressed the need for a swift government move to draft regulations setting out the circumstances in which children under 18 can marry, and the standards judges should use when considering requests to authorise child marriages.
The government should draft these regulations in close consultation with organisations working on child marriage and on children's rights, many of which have decades of experience helping girls at risk. The regulation should be narrowly limited to truly protect the best interests of the child.
It should also ban all marriages before the age of 16; interpretations of international law say that marriage before the age of 16 should never be permitted under any circumstances, said the HRW.
The regulations should require that a social worker be assigned to each case, to assist the judge and to follow through with services and support for girls.
Before approving a child marriage, the judge should confirm that girls seeking to marry have been offered comprehensive services, including help continue school, social service support for them and their families, and comprehensive reproductive health information and services.
“Judges are now the last line of protection against this law being used to force girls into marriage against their will, or even allow rapists to escape penalty by marrying their victims,” said Heather Barr.
“The government should provide clear guidance for judges, so that this provision is used rarely and with great caution,” she added.
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