House of Representatives Takes Part in International Webinar on the Role of Parliamentarians in Ending Child Marriage
Members of the Moroccan Parliamentary Representation at the Inter-Parliamentary Union Mustapha Reddad, Omar Hejira and Khadouj Slassi took part on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, via videoconference, in the international webinar organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the World Health Organization on “Ending child marriage in the time of COVID-19: What role for parliaments?”
The webinar, held in partnership with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program, focuses on the problem of child marriage worldwide by identifying some national experiences, exchanging information on them and consolidating dialogue between parliamentarians and the different relevant actors.
At the start of the webinar, the Coordinator of the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Program, Nankali Maksud, noted, “Around 12 million girls under the age of 18 get married every year. This number has been increasing since the emergence of COVID-19.” She also added that the Global Program aims to end this phenomenon by 2030 through working on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, such as combatting discrimination against women, respecting the treaties on human and children's rights and consolidating the partnership between parliamentarians.
For her part, the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Girls not Brides, Matilda Branson, noted that the early marriage of children is mainly caused by the propagation of poverty, vulnerability, domestic violence, school drop-out, absence of sanitary facilities and lack of awareness about the dangers that might emanate from early marriage. In this respect, she called for advancing the partnership between parliamentarians and civil society organizations to reflect collectively on practical solutions to end this phenomenon.
In their interventions, the members of the Moroccan Parliamentary Representation at the IPU stressed that child marriage is a complex issue and that Morocco is aware of the problems it causes. In this context, they emphasized the necessity to elaborate a comprehensive public policy that observes the respect of the natural rights of children, ensures their right of children to schooling and health, and sensitizes parents.
The Moroccan Representatives highlighted the vital role of parliamentarians through legislative initiatives guaranteed to them by the Constitution. In this vein, they underlined the need to amend Article 20 of the Family Code, which stipulates that the Family Court judge in charge of marriage may permit the marriage of a boy and a girl who have not reached the marriageable age enounced in Article 19 of the same Code.
During this webinar, the participants reviewed several local experiences in India, Zambia and Mexico, as well as the efforts deployed by these countries to end child marriage.
The participants concluded the webinar by stressing the importance of consolidating partnership and cooperation between parliamentarians and civil society organizations to find the adequate means to end this problem permanently.