By Calvin Quays|LPR Contributor
The Independent National Commission on Human Rights of Liberia (INCHRL) has called on the Liberian Government to strengthen its implementation and enforcement mechanisms to end early and forced child marriages.
The commission this has come a continued pattern of rape and abuse of children in the country.
Rev. Bartholomew B. Colley, acting chairperson of INCHRL stated that the African Union Campaign to end child marriages launched in Liberia 2016 under the theme” We are children, not wives, save us from child marriage”, Are all good efforts that will go a long way to end the exploitation of children.
Rev. Colley made the statement Tuesday June 16 ,2020 at the occasion marking this year observance of the Day of the African Child held at its Head Office in Sinkor outside Monrovia.
According to him, while the Commission appreciates all these laudable initiatives consistent with Liberia legislative framework and international human rights obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Chapter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, there have been enormous challenges.
He added that for example, the flow of early marriages, the recurrent cases of rape, the persistent abuse of children, such as street peddlers, child labor, child trafficking, and the humiliation of children as old as 5 years on the accusation of witchcrafts are inhumanely appalling.
He added that concrete steps are needed to give effect to core normative expression contain both in the legislative framework and international human rights treaties.
“The Commission notes and strongly advices that the existence of legal rules without implementation does not fulfill the obligation of the State under international human rights law” Rev. Colley said.
He maintained that the Commission, while acknowledging the efforts on the part of the government, in practice, much has to be done to address these above challenges.
Rev. Colley emphasized that the INCHRL and the entire human rights community call on not the government but also, all stakeholders, especially the religious and traditional or customary authorities to ensure due and lawful respect for the right of the child in compliance with both national and international human rights laws.
“We memorialize children the world over and especially African and particularly Liberian children who passed under circumstances of child rights violations, but at the same time promise the promotion and protection of all children rights without discrimination” Rev. Colley asserted.
June 16 each year is celebrated as the Day of the African Child around the world to commemorate the 1976 massacre in South Africa in which many children were killed.
Child marriages in Western Liberia
Liberia has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2007 Liberia ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.
But in its 2019 report, the Independent National Commission on Human Rights of Liberia said Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia top the list where the highest number of children marriages took place.
However, Liberia Public Radio uncovered that this is due the predominantly Islamic cultural of Grand Cape Mount where girl children are compel to marry older men who are sometimes 25 years their senior.
