Human Rights Watch said today on the African Union’s Day of the African Child that African governments should not tolerate or legalize child marriage, denial of education, or other human rights violations against girls.
“Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children” is the theme for 2022.
Stronger measures should be taken by African governments to protect girls from practices that violate their rights.
Discriminatory traditional, economic, religious, and legal conditions, as well as harmful societal views on the role of girls and women, are often at the root of harmful practices.
Child marriage is one of them, and it is still very common in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 18 of the top 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage in the world.
Most have high rates of teenage pregnancy and a large percentage of girls who are out of school.
“Many girls drop out of school because they are forced to marry and have children at a crucial time for their education and future,” women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, Rita Nketiah said.
“Child marriage blocks girls from making their own life choices, disrupts or ends their education, subjects them to violence and discrimination, and denies their full participation in economic, political, and social life.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, child marriages and teenage pregnancy rates are said to have increased across most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
UNICEF and non-governmental organizations estimate that the number of girls dropping out of school will continue to rise as families lose income and face further financial hardship.
Several African governments’ failure to act on child marriage remains one of the most significant roadblocks to protecting girls’ rights, including their right to education.
Human Rights Watch said that while many African governments have agreed to address and end harmful practices against girls and women, enforcement has been slow.
Human Rights Watch found that the federal and state governments in Nigeria, which has a high rate of child marriage, have not adequately enforced laws prohibiting marriage before the age of 18.
After her mother died, an 11-year-old girl in Kano State, Nigeria dropped out of lower secondary school, and her family forced her to marry so that someone would look after her.
Now 14, she told Human Rights Watch that on her wedding day, she felt powerless.
She said, “I can’t actually remember [my wedding] because it wasn’t my decision. It was my family members’ decision. I don’t actually love him. They just got me married to him without my consent. There was a [traditional] marriage ceremony, but I wasn’t involved in it.”
Over 30 African governments have passed laws protecting adolescent girls’ right to stay in school during pregnancy and motherhood, many of which have been implemented in recent years.
Despite significant progress, many countries with legal protections, such as Kenya and Malawi, continue to exclude these students from public schools.
Some governments have yet to enact explicit legal protections as well as additional financial or protection measures to ensure that these girls, including married students with children, receive the necessary support to remain in school.
Tanzania has not removed regulations that allow schools to expel students who have “entered into wedlock,” despite removing a discriminatory school ban against pregnant students or young mothers in November 2021.
Despite a 2016 High Court decision to amend the Marriage Act to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 for both girls and boys, the government has not made child marriage illegal.
According to Human Rights Watch, the African Union should amplify the call by African human rights institutions and urge all of its member states to prohibit child marriage.
It should encourage countries to pass laws and policies encouraging girls to stay in school and return to school after having a child in order to achieve academic success.
Despite the fact that many African governments have made significant progress in reducing gender disparities in secondary education access, many girls continue to face other obstacles and restrictions that prevent them from achieving their educational goals.
Tuition fees and indirect costs in secondary schools, according to Human Rights Watch research in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Malawi, among other countries, remain one of the most significant barriers, particularly for girls from low-income families and those living in poverty.
When their schooling is of poor quality, when their parents perceive a risk of sexual violence in school and on the way to school, and when they drop out of school, many girls are at an increased risk of child marriage.
These factors continue to influence parents’ decisions to marry off their daughters while they are still young in many communities.
“All African governments should urgently amend their laws and policies to ensure that marriage laws require gender equality and bar discrimination,” Nketiah said.
“They should also zealously work toward removing all financial and policy barriers to ensure that all girls can obtain free secondary education.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).