Removing the exceptions in the Marriage Act will not protect the nation’s children from the serious ills in society.
This was the view of 20 organisations in T&T that represent over 90 per cent of the Muslims of T&T in an advertisement published in yesterday’s newspapers on the recent amendment to the marriage age to 18.
“These ills require multi-faceted interventions at the level of the home, school, faith based organisations, communities and society. Good and effective legislative changes must address those ills,” the statement said.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi laid the bill in the Senate on January 11 to essentially remove from all of the four Marriage Acts in T&T a provision that children under the age of 18 years can be married with parental consent.
It was disclosed that over the period 2008 to 2015, 15,231 child pregnancies were recorded. In comparison to the 548 child marriages for roughly the same period, the statistics revealed that there were some 27 times more pregnancies by children than the number of marriages.
“These 15,231 girls have been exposed to health risks associated with being sexually active, such as sexually transmitted infections, increasing HIV/Aids and early pregnancy as outlined in the declarations and conventions,” the Muslim organisations said.
“If the Government is seriously seeking to protect the health and welfare of our children in T&T, then shouldn’t these 15,231 girls, in addition to those who are sexually active and not pregnant, be protected as well?” they added.
They remain adamant that good legislation provides for exceptions, as amendments to legislation are not an everyday occurrence, “legislation is intended to take into consideration the society in which it is to operate. So we insist that an exception be included.”
The T&T Muslim community says they expect that all organisations which supported the Government in removing the exception so as to protect the 548 girls will join with them in asking the Government to legislate to protect all the children with the same alacrity.