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A general view of the House of Lords chamber in session at the Houses of Parliament in London, September 5, 2016. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A bill criminalizing child marriage in the United Kingdom will be presented to the British parliament for its third and last hearing on Tuesday afternoon, a move aimed to safeguard young boys and girls.
A renewed legislative bid aimed at raising the minimum age for marriage in England and Wales to 18 and criminalizing the organization of underage unions is set for its third and final hearing in the House of the Lords, Payzee Mahmod, campaigner and a survivor of child marriage told Rudaw English early Tuesday.
The third hearing is aimed at "tidying up" the amendments in the bill and unless there are any changes, it will then be sent for royal assent.
The bill was approved and is expected to become law after it receives Royal Assent, reported BBC.
In both countries, the law allows 16 and 17-year-olds to get married with their parental consent, leaving children vulnerable to coercion by family members to enter into a marriage against their will.
The UK outlawed forced marriages in 2014, a step still seen as insufficient to protect teenagers and children as it requires victims to testify against the perpetrators, often their parents or religious leaders who solemnize the unions. In 2020, 753 cases of forced marriages were reported across the UK.
A sister of a victim of the so-called honor killing, Payzee has been working towards banning child marriage in the UK and Europe, launching a campaign that gained over 250,000 signatures and widespread public approval. The final hearing comes almost six months after MP Pauline Latham brought the bill before the parliament.
Rudaw English reached out to Latham but she was not immediately available.
If passed, the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill would make it an offense to carry out “any conduct for the purpose of causing a child to enter into a marriage before the child’s eighteenth birthday,” with a prison sentence of maximum seven years.
The British-Kurdish woman dedicates the step, which could be a milestone in children's lives, to her sister Banaz, who was killed by her own family for leaving an abusive forced marriage. Her murder drew international attention and handed her brother, uncle, and third killer lengthy sentences, according to AFP.
Kurdish women and girls have made up the most high-profile cases of forced-marriage-related violence in the UK and across wider Europe, an act that remains common in the homeland as well.
Related: Child marriage is still legal in Britain. Meet the Kurdish woman campaigning for its end
Child marriage is associated with a series of abuses, including domestic violence, sexual and honor-based violence, and rape.
In 2018, officials recorded 147 legal marriages of teens under 18 in England and Wales, involving 28 boys and 119 girls, AFP said in earlier this month. There were 183 in the year before.
Updated on April 27, at 10:20 am
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