US ambassador urges Bangladesh to repeal special clause allowing marriage under 18 years

US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat has likened the special provision allowing child marriage in Bangladesh to “killing a mosquito with a hammer”, asking that the government look at alternatives to prevent girls becoming victims.

The government has approved the draft Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2016 and placed it in Parliament for approval. The law keeps provision allowing marriage below 18 years in ‘special circumstances’ amid global criticism.

Explaining the ‘special circumstances’, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in Parliament on Wednesday they have kept the provision considering realities of society.

“We’ve fixed the minimum age for girls to marry at 18. But what if any of them becomes pregnant at 12-13 or 14-15 and abortion can’t be conducted? What will happen to the baby? Will society accept it?” she had asked.

In such cases, she said the girl could go for marriage with her parents’ consent in order to give the baby ‘legal status’ in society.

The prime minister also argued that in many Western countries, there were many under-aged mothers who do not face problem getting their children enrolled at school.

The US ambassador on Friday said such circumstances were “rare” in Bangladesh where she believed child marriage was mostly related to arranged marriage.

“I would say creating a provision for something which is already a rare occurrence seems like killing a mosquito with a hammer, a very big tool for a very little problem,” Bernicat said taking questions after a discussion.

She welcomed the law, but said “introduction of the ‘except clause’ runs the risk of impeding child marriages in Bangladesh”.

The UN Women organised the discussion bringing together US ambassador, Sri Lankan high commissioner, UN resident coordinator and other heads of agencies and diplomatic missions who spearheaded the ‘Ambassadors for Change’ campaign to mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence.

The event was organised for the visiting UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri. UN Women Bangladesh Country Representative Christine Hunter was also present.

The top American diplomat in Dhaka said ending child marriage was the “key element” in ending gender-based violence itself.

“Research in this country and others have established that child marriage and gender-based violence are very closely linked.” she said and pointed out that Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka have all revised the child marriage law in the last 10 years and accepted the minimum age of marriage 18 without exceptions.

She said in many countries, the old laws had not been updated and that’s why they have the provision of permitting child marriage.

“I am not aware of any developed country adopting a new law that allows child marriage,” Bernicat said.

“In the West, the provision is an old one. But no parents like their daughters in the US want to marry early,” she said, “because there are so many opportunities for you to be educated and to pursue a career independently.”

“I am not saying that parents are bad here, but there are social norms that allow child marriage.”

She also showed interest to help the government to find out better ways to protect the girls from becoming the victims of child marriage.

The UN Women Deputy Executive Director Puri said, “Child marriage is also violence against women, and costs are too high,” adding that “this deep-rooted social norm has to be changed”.

She said ending violence against women has become a sustainable development target. “It’s no longer a law and order issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a part of the SDGs.”

“This is a big shift in the level of international commitment recognising that this pandemic must be ended,” she said, showing the UN’s support to Bangladesh to end violence against women.