APSN Banner

Women's parliamentary group developing law to control underage marriage

Source
Dili Weekly - October 7, 2016

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL) with other women's associations is developing a law to enforce the legal age of marriage in Timor-Leste.

GMPTL president MP Florentina Smith said it was necessary to propose the law as high numbers of women were marrying young and this could potentially impact their health.

"Marriage is everyone rights, but we need a law to control it and [this] gives the opportunity for women to study," she said in Delta Novas, Dili.She said early marriage issue was also linked to the high rates of maternal and child mortality, cases of babies being dumped and other infectious diseases because young women were not physically or emotionally mature enough to cope with having a baby.She said GMPTL also had plans to develop reproductive health and anti-pornography laws with the aim of reducing of maternal and child mortality, as well as early marriage, in the country.

According to the data from health facilities, 23.3% of women under the age of 19 fell pregnant in Timor-Leste from the end of 2014 up until this year.

Smith said health data showed that the ideal age for to marriage is 20 as women were more physically, emotionally and mentally ready to have a baby. She said women who fell pregnant under the age of 19 were at higher risk of maternal and child mortality.

Director of the Movement of Women Organization (MOFFE) Yasinta Lujina said the law was not only to prevent early marriage, but also to prevent infectious diseases that affected women's health.

"Talking about the future of country and women's participation in the development [process], every institution should make efforts to ensure good health assistance [is available] for women," she said.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Ombudsman, Silverio Baptista Pinto, said he supported the initiative as sexual and reproductive health issues were also linked to early marriage.

"Parents who force their children to marry young should be sanctioned, we shouldn't only propose a law for controlling the age of marriage, there should also be sanctions as well," he said.

Unless there was a law to control early marriage, he said families would continue to violate women's rights and this affects in particular their physical development, education and social life.

He said number of cases showed that parents forced their children to get married early in order to receive dowry payments. Therefore he said it was necessary to define the legal age for marriage as it was not easy to build a family and maturity was needed when facing problems in the family.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/gender/14090-women-s-parliamentary-group-developing-law-to-control-underage-marriage

Country