'About time': Law set to end child marriage in England and Wales - Yahoo News
At 16, Payzee Mahmod was coerced by her Iraqi-Kurdish family in London into marrying a man around twice her age.
Two years later her elder sister Banaz, who had left a marriage she was forced into aged 17, was murdered by members of her family in a so-called honour killing.
Laws in England and Wales, which allow 16- and 17-year-olds to get married as long as they have parental consent, offered the teenage girls little redress at the time.
But nearly two decades on, a renewed legislative bid to change the minimum age for marriage to 18, and criminalise those organising underage unions, looks set to succeed.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic that this is happening -- it's about time," Mahmod told AFP outside the UK parliament in London, where the bill is poised to pass in the coming weeks.
"This is something that could have really protected me and my sister and all the children that have been going through this harmful practice."
- 'Global issue' -
Campaigners hope it could help spur changes in other countries where under-18s are still allowed to marry -- from Scotland, which has a separate legal system to England and Wales, to the majority of US states.
"This is a global issue," said Mahmod, who has been publicly advocating for reform for several years.
Britain has committed to the United Nations' sustainable development goals, which include outlawing child marriage by 2030.
"I'm hoping it will have a bit of a domino effect," said Conservative lawmaker Pauline Latham, who is behind the bill.
Latham launched the proposal after learning the UK was asking countries receiving aid to stop child marriage, even though it had not done so itself.
"It had never really occurred to me before that we did have child marriage," she said. "But we do... and once this bill goes through it'll stop."
- 'Life chances' -
The UK outlawed forced marriage in 2014 but that is seen as insufficient to protect teenagers because it requires victims to testify against the perpetrators -- who are typically their parents.
source: https://news.yahoo.com/time-law-set-end-child-052007436.html
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