Authorities rescued 600 child marriage victims in Cabo Delgado this year – Mozambique

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Authorities rescued 600 child marriage victims in Cabo Delgado this year – Mozambique

3:04 CAT | 20 Jun 2019

For illustration purposes only. [Image: Lusa]

Mozambican authorities this year rescued over 600 Mozambican children from “premature marriage “in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Minister of Gender, Child and Social Action Cidália Chaúque has announced.

Quoted in today’s ‘Noticias’, Cidália Chaúque says that the authorities had to intervene to rescue children married against their will by relatives, after receiving complaints by the province’s residents or “unofficial knowledge” gleaned by state institutions.

“The child represents the future, so the government has always to put the child first when it comes to the protection of fundamental rights,” Chaúque said.

Despite intense campaigns by authorities and civil society, child marriage persists in Mozambique, especially in rural areas.

“The government has approved policies and strategies to end preterm marriages,” the minister said.

Mozambican legislation determines 18 as the minimum age for marriage, or 16 in exceptional circumstances, but unions between girls younger than this and adult men are frequent, often as a result of agreements involving relatives of the child.

The Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique has already expressed its willingness to approve legal norms holding those who live with a child under the age of 16 criminally accountable, but this legislative intervention has not yet occurred.

Source: Lusa