It is quite pathetic and disheartening to see young girls forcefully married off in early marriages to men old enough to be their fathers truncating the desired future plans of these girls and reducing enrolment of girls in the educational sector at the detriment of the nation considering the imperious role women play in the socio-economic development of every nation.
Laws on child marriage, both international and national, all reflect the belief that children do not have the maturity and mental capacity to make decisions on legally binding relationships like marriage.
Definition
Early Marriage is marriage that occurs before a person reaches the age of consent 18 years. Also known as child marriage, it is the practice where one or both spouses are below the age of 18. Similarly, Forced Marriage is marriage that occurs without the expressed consent of either one or both of the parties. Usually, the party whose consent is not sought is the girl and she is usually forced or coerced into marriage although some boys can be affected by this practice. Strong social and cultural norms also drive the practice despite legislation in place.
Prevalence
Forced and early marriage is anunrelentingdilemma that arises mainly among young women and girls, although there are cases of young men and boys being forced to marry. Reliable statistics on forced marriage are difficult to compile due to the unofficial and, therefore, undocumented nature of most forced marriages. Victims’ resistance to speaking out against their typically “closed” families, or communities, poses another obstacle to reliable data. The absence of a birth certificate can also mean that the victim has no way of proving that they are a victim of child or early marriage. In 2003, the International Centre for Research on Women estimated that more than 51 million girls under 18 years were married and they expected the figure to rise to over 100 million within the next 10 years.
There are indications that, “Ghana has one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates in the world, showing that on average, one out of four girls will be married before their 18th birthday”. The Ghana Demographic Health Survey in 2008 indicated that about 25% of the women aged 20-24 were married or were in union before age 18, implying a decline of 11% since 2003 (which scored 28%). However the 2011 Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) scores Ghana about 28% for age of marriage before 18 and about 6% for age before 15 years. At the regional level in Ghana,previous surveys gave the indication that prevalence is highest inUpper East (50%), followed by Upper West (39%), Northern (36%), Volta (33%), etc.
This trend in the statistics accentuates that early and forced marriage is a problem in Ghana hence the need to develop strategies that will combat it although there are several questions about what amounts to forced or early marriage in Ghana,
Contributory factors
There are numerous factors that contribute to the forced or early marriages in Ghana:-
Traditionand Religion: there is a strong old age beliefthat the best way to control acts of immorality among teenage girls is to marry them off at a younger age.
Poverty: Parents in some communities marry off their girl child for monetary gain because of poverty especially in the rural areas.
Parents’ wish to prevent pre-marital sex thereby ensuring their daughter’s virginity until marriage to avoid shame on the family and preventing sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/AIDS and/or unwanted pregnancies.
“Even though gender inequality, tradition, religion, teenage pregnancy, poverty, conflicts, disasters and emergencies appear to be the root causes of early child and forced marriages failure on the part of duty bearers to enforce laws, ignorance of the existing laws, and the apparent lenient penalty/ punishment contained in current legislation appear not to be deterring enough to curb the menace,”.A Board Member of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana, Ms. Magdalene Kannae.
LAWS PROSCRIBING CHILD EARLY AND FORCED MARRIAGE IN GHANA
The 1992 Constitution and the Children’s Act (Act 560) both define a child as a person below the age of 18. The Children’s Act further bolts the minimum marriage age in Ghana at 18 and frowns on children being withdrawn from school for marriage. Section 14 of the Act provides that a person shall not force a child to be betrothed, to be subject of a dowry transaction or to be married. The Criminal Code Amendment Act (Act 554) prohibits compulsion in marriage and giving a girl out in marriage without her consent. Section 100 of the Act provides that if a female is compelled to marry another person by duress this makes the marriage void or voidable, the marriage is of no effect”. Section 109 also states that “whoever by duress causes any person to marry against his or her will shall be guilty of a misdemeanor” Section 92 states that “a person is guilty of abduction of a female who with intent to cause her to be married to any person when he unlawfully takes her from lawful possession and care and detaining her. Section 109 also states clearly that forcing a person to marry against their will is illegal while the Children’s Act also stipulates that forced child marriage is illegal (Sec. 13 and 14).The Domestic Violence Act, (Act 732) 2007. Section 1(b) defines domestic to include” the forcible confinement and detention of another person”.
Increased maternal and infant health risks as a result of undeveloped biological and reproductive systems of these teenage mothers, increased maternal mortality, Exposure to HIV/AIDS and related complications, exposure to domestic violence and sexual abuse, etc.
By Blessed EDUAMOAH DADZIE
