Judgment No. CCZ 12/2015 50 Const. Application No. 79/14 78(1) provides, in effect, that a person aged below 18 years has not attained full maturity and lacks capacity to understand the meaning and responsibilities of marriage. The rights to marry and found a family are rights to be enjoyed by adults and not children. The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Children states that early marriage is “any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is physically, physiologically and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and child bearing”. No law can validly give a person in Zimbabwe who is aged below eighteen years the right to exercise the right to marry and found a family without contravening s 78(1) of the Constitution. To the extent that it provides that a girl who has attained the age of sixteen can marry, s 22(1) of the Marriage Act is inconsistent with the provisions of s 78(1) of the Constitution and therefore invalid. In light of the overwhelming empirical evidence on the harmful effects of early marriage on girl children, no law which authorises such marriage can be said to do so to protect “the best interests of the child”. The best interests of the child would be served, in the circumstances, by legislation which repealed s 22(1) of the Marriage Act. By exposing girl children to the horrific consequences of early marriage in clear violation of their fundamental rights as children s 22(1) of the Marriage Act is contrary to public interest in the welfare of children. Failure by the State to take such legislative measures to protect the rights of the girlchild when it was under a duty to act, denied the girl children subjected to child marriages the right to equal protection of the law.