Child Marriage: Gambia to jail parents 21 years
Published July 22, 2016
Gambia passed a law banning child marriage Thursday and introduced heavy jail terms for anyone who breaks the new rules.
Under the new law, a man who marries an
underage girl would face 20 years in jail, her parents would get 21
years and an iman who presides over the marriage would also face time in
prison.
The law also states that anyone who is
aware of the marriage of a girl under the age of 18 but fails to report
it could be put away for 10 years.
President Yahya Jammeh announced plans
to push through the new law earlier this month, having previously said
that the practice was not required under Islam — the religion of around
95 percent of the country’s 1.8 million population.
“This bill seeks to discourage the
languishing practice in our society by criminalising child marriage. It
is envisaged that this law will serve as a deterrent to prospective
offenders,” attorney general and justice minister Mama Fatima Singhateh
Thursday told parliament.
In December 2015, legislators passed a
bill criminalising female circumcision and introducing prison terms of
up to three years for anyone flouting the ban, a month after Jammeh
branded the practice outdated and ordered its immediate cessation.
No comments:
Post a Comment