Mozambique: Child support phone line rescues 26 minors from early marriages

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Mozambique: Child support phone line rescues 26 minors from early marriages

3:17 CAT | 09 Feb 2021

in file CoM

A total of 26 girls have been rescued from early marriages out of 109 cases reported to the Linha Fala Criança, since it began operating in Manica, central Mozambique, a social activist told Lusa on Tuesday.

From October to December 2020, 206 cases of violations against children were reported through line 116 in several districts of Manica province and more than half were linked to early marriages, according to data from Girl Child Rights (GCR), an NGO for the defence of children.

Of the total number of complaints dealt with, 97 were related to child labour, social discrimination and access to education and other civil situations, and were referred to various bodies, including the Prosecutor’s Office.

In some cases, children under 12 were rescued from early marraiges to men four or five times older, and in others, the union was frustrated when the girl was to be handed over during traditional ceremonies after complaints from the victims’ sisters and uncles, said Miguel Jambo, GCR programme director.

“Our success rate and the outcome of the cases was 38%” in the first three months of operation of the Child Speech Line in central Mozambique, said Miguel Jambo, who was surprised at the level of awareness of the children in denouncing the violation of their rights.

“We are ensuring that all cases reported through the line are dealt with efficiently and promptly, to ensure that children remain protected and safe, even in Covid-19 time,” he said.

The most recent case of a girl’s early marriage was in December in a suburb of Chimoio, the capital of Manica, when the uncle of a 12-year-old girl frustrated the consummation of traditional marriage.

The girl had already been given in marriage to an adult man with whom she had been living for some months in the Vanduzi district. But on the day of the dowry (in kind or animals offered to the bride’s family), the victim’s uncle denounced the situation through 116, and the police were called to the scene.

“Immediate procedural measures were taken against the minor’s parents and Child Speech Line has made regular monitoring of the girl’s condition” and her re-socialisation,” Miguel Jambo told Lusa.

The Children’s Speech Line has come to revolutionise the profusion of denunciations of violations of children’s rights, but it needs more publicity, Miguel Jambo said.

For his part, Jorge Tivane, the provincial prosecutor of Manica, noted that the line has become a gateway to the judicial system for children up to the age of 18, who are facing social protection issues.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Manica has received and processed 124 cases from the GCR, 29 of which have been decided and the remaining 95 cases are still being dealt with by the courts.

The Line has already answered 18,000 calls from the provinces of Manica, Tete, Sofala and Zambézia.

Source: Lusa