About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

7 Indon. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 103 (2020)
International Law and Child Marriage in Africa

handle is hein.journals/indjicl7 and id is 127 raw text is: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND CHILD MARRIAGE IN AFRICA John Mukum Mbaku Weber State University & The Brookings Institution E-mail: jmbaku@weber.edu In recent years, civil society organizations in many countries around the world, as well as international organizations, such as UNICEF, have redoubled their ef- forts to end child marriage, prevent girls from marrying too young, and provide support for those girls that were already married as children. Child marriage is generally understood as a marriage or union-whether formal or informal-in which at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age. International organiza- tions, such as the United Nations, have recognized child marriage as a violation of the human rights of the children involved and a practice that disproportion- ately affects women and girls globally. Human rights, including those ofgirl-chil- dren, are the purview of international law. Nevertheless, since the international community does not have a global government that can enact laws against child marriage and make certain that these laws are enforced, legal scholars have ar- gued that the most important mechanism for the enforcement of international law, including international human rights law, is for each ratifying government to domesticate the treaties that they sign and ratify and hence, create rights that are justiciable in domestic courts. Where countries have not yet international- ized their national constitutional law, courts can use their interpretive power to bring each country's law into conformity with the provisions of internation- al human rights instruments. An examination of two cases dealing with child marriage, one from the United Republic of Tanzania and the other from the Republic of Zimbabwe, shows that courts in these African countries are grad- ually developing a jurisprudence that effectively addresses the problem of child marriage and its impact on the rights of children. Keywords: Human Rights, Forced Marriage, Children's Rights, Law and Develop- ment, Comparative Law. The Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X http://wwwijil org © 2020 The Institute for Migrant Rights Press

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most