10 hours ago
Solomon Islands marriage age is a children's rights issue
Currently, people can be married at age 15 with parental consent. Under customary law, there is no minimum age for marriage.
Photo:
Save the Children Solomon Islands Facebook
A charity advocating to raise the marriage age from 15 to 18 in the Solomon Islands says it is a children's rights issue.
Save the Children's Ellen Kahui spoke to
Pacific Waves
in following a
recent government proposal
to review the country's legal age for marriage.
Currently, people can be married at age 15 with parental consent. Under customary law, there is no minimum age for marriage.
Kahui said raising the age was critical to protecting children and young people vulnerable to "forced early unions".
"Even with parental consent, marriage at such a young age can hinder a child's physical, emotional and educational development, and also deprive them of fundamental rights.
"Also noting that early marriage of girls severely undermines the rights to …education, health and future prospects, because once married, girls are often unable to complete their schooling and their opportunities for further advancement in life are cut off."
Research from a global network of civil society organisations showed one in five girls (21 percent) were married before 18 in the Solomon Islands. Six percent were married before 15. For boys, the survey showed four percent were married before age 18.
Save the Children, alongside World Vision and ChildFund, has campaigned to raise the marriage age to 18 in the Solomon Islands.
The charities' released a
report
into their work last year, which said in rural areas teenage marriages were even more common than in urban areas - with one in four girls married before age 18.
At the time, Destiny, a 17-year-old who was part of the 'Make it 18' campaign in the Solomon Islands, spoke out about how 15 was too young to get married.
"What I see is just that's a hard life, like when it comes to marriage, because marriage is a commitment," she said.
"Raising the age of marriage is to ensure that individuals have completed at least a basic level of education and have had time to develop emotionally and mentally."
Ellen Kahui said "adolescent pregnancies" posed a serious risk for girls and young women who married before age 18.
Children of "child brides" also faced "increased dangers", she said.
"They are more likely to be born with low birth weight, suffer from malnutrition, experience poor physical development. There's also the fear of facing high rates of mortality too, compared to those children who are born to older mothers."
Earlier this month, local media reported that foreign minister Peter Agovaka told parliament the proposed change to the legal marriage age, enshrined in the country's Islanders' Marriage and Divorce Act, aimed to align marriage laws with other legal matters, such as the voting age.
He said the move was in line with international human rights standards and growing calls for stronger child protection laws.
