Somalia: NGOs concerned about bill on sexual violence

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2 min

A bill on sexual violence, presented by parliamentarians in August, generated a wave of protests.

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According to many NGOs, this project could legalize early marriage in a country where, according to a government study carried out this year, a third of girls are already married before the age of 18. Brendan Ross, head of UNICEF for child protection in Somalia, is worried about a law that does not respect international agreements.

“ This bill does not respect the basic principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that the government ratified in 2015. For example, there is an amendment in this law that allows the marriage of young girls as soon as they are 'they have reached puberty. So that would mean that girls could be married as early as 12 or 13 years old. This is one of the elements of this bill which is very alarming for the United Nations and most certainly for many Somalis as well. But this is not the only element that worries us in this failing legislation in many respects: domestic violence is not mentioned once, marital rape either, just like genital mutilation and many others. problems still.  "

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• Somalia
• Womens rights