Let's intensify educational campaigns to combat early, forced marriages

The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has called for intensive educational campaigns to combat the practice of early and forced marriages in the country.

He said early and forced marriages were inimical to the development of children because they denied them the opportunity of being physically, psychologically, emotionally and financially ready for the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing, adding that as one of the countries with the highest rates of early marriages in the world, there was the fer need effective strategies to address the problem.

Mr Adjaho stated these in a speech read on his behalf by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, at the opening of a seminar on early and forced marriages in Accra on Monday.

The two-day seminar, organised by the Parliament of Ghana, the Parliament for Global Action International (PGA) and the Canadian government, has brought together stakeholders from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to discuss effective ways of combating the phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa.

What is child marriage?
Child marriage is defined as marriage involving persons under the age of 18.

The phenomenon occurs in practically every region of the world. The rate remains very high in some regions such as South Asia which has 46 per cent, sub-Saharan Africa, 37 per cent; Latin America and the Caribbean, 29 per cent; East Asia and Pacific, 18 per cent and Middle East and North Africa, 17 per cent.

West Africa has one of the highest prevalence rates with  Niger, Mali and Chad leading as major hotspots.

In Ghana, the practice is widespread and according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), in 2010, 277,000 women in Ghana aged between 20 and 24 were married before the age of 18.

If the present trend continues, according to the UNFPA, 407,000 of the young girls born between 2005 and 2010 would be married in union before age 18 by 2030.

The projection shows an increase of 47 per cent from the 2010 estimates of married girls, which is compounded by high fertility and low mortality in recent years.

Mr Adjaho said early and forced marriages terminated the education of girls, thus compromising their chances of being economically empowered.

“This phenomenon also has major consequences for public health, social and economic development of the country,” he said, adding that forced marriages occurred  more frequently among girls who were the least educated, poor, vulnerable and living in rural areas.

Role of Parliament 
Mr Adjaho said Parliament, had taken several measures to deal with the problem.

The measures, he said, included the ratification of a number of United Nations conventions and treaties requiring  member states to take active measures to ensure that child labour eliminated and passed a number of relevant legislations..

What others said
The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alfred Agbesi, said marriage was defined by the country's laws as a union between two consenting adults and added that the two parties must, therefore, be adults and must consent to the union.

If there was no consent on the part of even one of the parties, he said the union could not be deemed as marriage.

The Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, said a woman's right to choose a marriage partner of her choice was central to her dignity and added that a girl forced into marriage was tantamount to the denial of the human rights of the girl involved.

The consequences of forced marriages, he said, were dire, adding that victims suffered psychological trauma.

Mr Nitiwul noted that forced marriages were not limited to children below the age of 18 alone, and that there were instances in many parts of Ghana where widowed women were inherited by the deceased husband's brother and that was also unacceptable.

A reproductive and sexual health expert, Prof. F. T Sai, said although laws existed, they were not adequate and could not deal with the problem.

He said there was a conflict between the” law” and “practice” and called for clearer laws which adequately defined who a child was.

He called for an effective collaboration with traditional leaders who, due to archaic customs, hold on to those practices.

“We need to get our traditional leaders to come to terms with our legal requirements,” he added.