Big news: the country with the highest rate of child marriage in the world, Malawi, has taken a big step toward banning child marriage, with the parliament unanimously approving a bill to raise the legal age for marriage to 18 years. This proves that international and local campaigning works, which is why this is an important moment to congratulate Malawi on a huge step forward, and remind its leaders that the world expects this law to be fully enforced.
The Malawi government clearly cares about global public opinion. If we can increase Malawi’s Twitter following, stacking it with people who care about ending child marriage and keeping them accountable on this issue in the long term, we’ll be doing our part to support human rights activists with global people power. Follow the government of Malawi on Twitter and congratulate them on this move to protect the rights of young girls.
This legislation is a huge step for Malawi, where a staggering 50% of girls are married before their 18th birthday. The new law will help protect the rights of young girls to health, education and freedom from physical, mental and sexual violence. But the fight isn’t over. The previous legal minimum age for marriage was 15 in Malawi, but this minimum was inconsistently enforced, and nearly one in eight girls was married off before turning 15.
By following the Government of Malawi on Twitter, we can commend Malawi for the progress it has made, and show that we expect them to enforce the law to protect young girls.
Thanks for being a part of this,
Tom Blake and the Global Citizen Team
