The Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) has called upon the government to enact a child protection law that outlaws child marriage. This follows months of warnings by international and regional organisations about the dire consequences of child marriages.
But the story of 14-year-old Memory Machaya, who died in childbirth at a church shrine last month, is no less tragic for all those warnings, reports New Zimbabwe. Her horrific death, and her burial just hours later by the apostolic church to which she and her family belong, have stirred up many people in the country.
The MIHR said the Child Protection law should also criminalise any explicit or implicit concealment of child marriage. “The government should align the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) with section 81 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe specifically by defining a young person as a boy or girl under the age of 18 years and not 16, and amending section 64 of the Act to outlaw an actual or inferred sexual consent by children below 18 years,” said MIHR spokesperson Khumbulani Maphosa.
New Zimbabwe reports that Maphosa also implored the government to develop mechanisms that would strengthen the authority of traditional leaders to regulate unjust child cultural and religious practices.
To make matters worse, distraught relatives of Memory said the church was planning to “give” a nine-year-old girl as a “replacement” to the man regarded by the church as Memory’s husband.
An online petition calling for ‘Justice for Memory Machaya’ has so far received thousands of signatures.
New Zimbabwe article – Tragic Death While Zim Delays Child Marriage Laws (Open access)
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