News / National
Zimbabwe tops on child marriages
30 Aug 2014 at 08:26hrs | Views
Zimbabwe is among top countries in the world still practicing child marriages, standing at 31%, president of the senate Edna Madzongwe said on Friday.
Opening a parliamentary workshop in Harare meant to educate female legislators on how to achieve equity and empowerment through the country's new constitution, Madzongwe said the number of underage girls getting married was worrying –hence the need for laws to protect the girl child.
"There is need to align our marriage laws with the new constitution so that we protect our children and young girls who are getting married at tender age," she said.
"We hear people saying, 'I dreamt getting married to you' and the gild child getting married just like that. As parliament, we have a duty to deal with that. We have a mandate to protect the constitution."
Zimbabweans last year voted for a new supreme law, replacing the old constitution and a number of acts of parliament now need to be aligned with the new charter.
Madzongwe said Zimbabwe is among the top 40 countries known for child marriages, and was sitting at number 39.
She said lawmakers should push for the amendment of the Domestic Violence Act, the Marriages Act and the Administration of Estates Act, among other laws that have to do with women empowerment.
"Let us take advantage of this new constitution which favours us a lot and push for our upliftment as women," she said.
The workshop, funded by civil society groups such as the Women Trust, Women in Politics, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association and the British embassy sought to educate lawmakers on how to handle the new constitution vis a vis the existing laws viewed as anti-gender development.
Chiedza Simbo, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association director, said the MPs have a task to push for the realignment of all pieces of legislation dealing with women empowerment.
"When we talk of women empowerment, we are not talking of disempowering the men to empower the women, we are talking about equal treatment of both, according to the law," she said.
She narrated how jailed women are disadvantaged ahead of their male counterparts, claiming that female inmates do not access education facilities while serving their jail time.
She challenged the female MPs to push for more women to be appointed to sit on boards of state controlled entities.
Opening a parliamentary workshop in Harare meant to educate female legislators on how to achieve equity and empowerment through the country's new constitution, Madzongwe said the number of underage girls getting married was worrying –hence the need for laws to protect the girl child.
"There is need to align our marriage laws with the new constitution so that we protect our children and young girls who are getting married at tender age," she said.
"We hear people saying, 'I dreamt getting married to you' and the gild child getting married just like that. As parliament, we have a duty to deal with that. We have a mandate to protect the constitution."
Zimbabweans last year voted for a new supreme law, replacing the old constitution and a number of acts of parliament now need to be aligned with the new charter.
Madzongwe said Zimbabwe is among the top 40 countries known for child marriages, and was sitting at number 39.
She said lawmakers should push for the amendment of the Domestic Violence Act, the Marriages Act and the Administration of Estates Act, among other laws that have to do with women empowerment.
"Let us take advantage of this new constitution which favours us a lot and push for our upliftment as women," she said.
The workshop, funded by civil society groups such as the Women Trust, Women in Politics, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association and the British embassy sought to educate lawmakers on how to handle the new constitution vis a vis the existing laws viewed as anti-gender development.
Chiedza Simbo, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association director, said the MPs have a task to push for the realignment of all pieces of legislation dealing with women empowerment.
"When we talk of women empowerment, we are not talking of disempowering the men to empower the women, we are talking about equal treatment of both, according to the law," she said.
She narrated how jailed women are disadvantaged ahead of their male counterparts, claiming that female inmates do not access education facilities while serving their jail time.
She challenged the female MPs to push for more women to be appointed to sit on boards of state controlled entities.
Source - Zim Mail
