Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio on Tuesday promulgated a law banning child marriage in a country where hundreds of thousands of girls are married before turning 18.
“Freedom has come for our women,” Bio said during a ceremony organized by feminist groups and west African first ladies in the capital Freetown.
The Sierra Leonean Parliament approved the law last month, passing a bill that criminalizes marrying girls below 18 with jail terms of at least 15 years or a stiff fine of more than US$2,000.
Photo: AFP
“This is an accomplishment that will define my administration,” Bio said, calling it a “beacon of hope in Africa where women have boundless opportunities to be and determine their own future and inspire the world.”
He urged the country to “nurture” equality “by eliminating all forms of violence and exclusion vices against our own women.”
The Save the Children nongovernmental organization lauded the “historic” law.
The law also bans men from living with underage girls and sets out a compensation package for those who are married or fall pregnant before turning 18.
In Sierra Leone, a country of 9 million people, there were 800,000 wives younger than 18 in 2017, including 400,000 younger than 15, according to UNICEF.
Child brides face lifelong disadvantages, which include being excluded from future educational and economic opportunities, Save the Children director Patrick Analo said.
However, the rate of child marriage has been slowly dropping over the past few.
According to UNICEF, 30 percent of girls had been married before their 18th birthday in 2017, down from 37 percent in 1992.
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