Zimbabwe Parliament calls for criminalisation of child marriages as 4 500 are forced out of primary school in one year

I would like to acknowledge the sterling role played by several supporting partners.  We have got the Human and Social Development and Special Programme in the SADC Parliamentary Forum, which jointly with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA), Plan Netherlands, 18 Plus Programme as well as Girls not Brides, UNFPA, Embassy of Sweden, Plan International and Global Partnership all came together with the SADC Litigation Centre and all those institutions played a role in ensuring that this model law sees the light of the day.

Without going through all the processes, I just want to point out the key steps that were taken to show that this model law was a product of extensive consultations.  First and foremost, was a presentation of the Model Law to a training programme hosted by the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria between 5th and 10th October, 2015.  There was also a presentation to the media fraternity on Legislative and Policy Interventions on SR/HR as they pertain to the model law and child marriages on 27th and 28th October, 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Then followed the presentation on the model law to the legal fraternity and other expert meetings held from 8th to 11th December, 2015.  This model law was further presented to the International Family Planning Conference in Indonesia between 25th and 28th December, 2015. There was also a presentation of the Model Law at the YWCA Girls Summit hosted by the Government of Zambia on the 26th – 27th November, 2015 and also its presentation for adoption to the 38th Plenary Assembly which was held in Namibia, Swakopmund. Lastly but equally important, its presentation at the ICASA hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe between the 29th November and 1st December, 2015. I am just outlining all these steps to show how extensive the consultations have been.

Mr. Speaker Sir, I would now like to go to the substance of the Model Law. This document has got something like 79 pages. I am not going to –

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Let us not make noise Hon. Members.

HON. GONESE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I think we have to remind each other of the importance of this motion because we have been talking about it and I would like to submit that it would be good for Zimbabwe to also be the pioneer in formally adopting this Model Law in our Parliament as opposed to a situation where we just have the launch. In that regard Mr. Speaker Sir, I will just indicate the highlights of the Model law. As already indicated, it has something like 79 pages which shows that it is very detailed. It covers almost everything.

The first part deals with the rationale and objectives of the model law. I have already alluded to some of these aspects in my preamble. What I would like to do at this point in time Mr. Speaker, is to highlight some of the challenges which make it necessary for us to take the further step which I am pointing out, that we now want to have a situation where we have got proper legislation enacted which will have penal provisions. At the present moment, what the Constitutional Court judgment has simply done is to ensure that there is no doubt in the law. Everyone is clear that child marriages are not permissible. What we would now like to have is a situation where those who transgress, who take children and make them wives or husbands face the full wrath of the law.

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