The objective of this Model Law is to provide model provisions to assist Member States enact laws on the eradication of child marriage and protection of children already in marriage and domesticate international and regional human rights instruments dealing with, or impacting on, child marriage and specifically to – (a) re-state some basic rights, concepts and principles relating to the child, as a basis of eradicating child marriage and enabling the development of policies, strategies, measures and interventions to fulfill a child’s rights; (b) prohibit child marriage from the commencement of a Member State’s law on eradicating child marriage; (c) make any child marriage, existing at the commencement of a Member State’s law on eradicating child marriage, voidable on the option of a party to the marriage, in certain circumstances; (d) prohibit child betrothals and make existing child betrothals void from the commencement of a Member State’s law on eradicating child marriage; (e) provide for a minimum age of marriage and capacity to contract a marriage; (f) prohibit the solemnisation of child marriage and enable a court to issue restraining orders; (g) provide for legal aid to victims of child marriage; (h) provide for custody and maintenance of offspring of prohibited marriages and victims of child marriages; (i) provide for the legitimacy of offspring of prohibited marriages; (j) provide for policy options for programming to develop strategies and incentives to delay marriage until the age of majority; (k) provide for division of property acquired during the subsistence of a child marriage; Page 27 of 78