INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL
CHILD
[11th October 2018]
With Her: A Skilled Girl Force
Today, the 11th October, is the International Day of the Girl Child.
The International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated annually on October 11 to
highlight issues of gender inequality and the challenges facing young girls.
This Year’s Theme
This year’s theme is “With Her A Skilled Girl Force”.
The theme this year seeks to draw attention to the need for girls to be
adequately equipped with training and skills suitable to today’s rapidly changing
job market and the needs of the fourth industrial revolution in which we find
ourselves. Of paramount importance is ensuring girls are given equal access to
education to put them on the same footing as their male counterparts as
required by section 27(2) of our Constitution. In order to achieve this objective
the obstacles that encumber the girl child must be addressed and dealt with.
Child Marriage
Child marriage is both a symptom of poverty and a conduit through which it is
perpetuated, as some families that struggle to provide for their children view
early marriage as a way out of their difficulties. However, girls who are married
early are deprived of the opportunity to further their education which is an
essential tool in changing one’s economic status. Most pertinent to this year’s
theme is the role child marriage plays in preventing girls from attaining
necessary skills that would empower them in future by allowing them to enter
the job market and fend for themselves.
In January 2016, the Constitutional Court delivered a landmark judgment on the
issue of child marriage in a case brought by Veritas [Mudzuru & Another v
Minister of Justice & Others; the judgment is available on the Veritas website
[link]. The Court declared that provisions of our law which permitted children
under the age of 18 to marry violated the Constitution. As stated in previous
bulletins, however, the judgment is only a start. Much work still needs to be
done to implement the judgment:
Amendment of Marriage Laws
While the judgment made it illegal for a minor – i.e. a person under the age of
18 – to enter into marriage, we have yet to see a requisite response from
Parliament in the form of an amendment to section 22(1) of the Marriage Act,
which still sets the minimum age for girls to marry at 16 years – and even
younger with ministerial approval. There is an urgent need to amend section 22
to prevent girls from having their education cut short through marriage.
Economic and social changes