ActionAid, UN Women, WOLREC Excited With Passing of Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill
Immediately after the house passed the bill, gender activists who attended the national assembly deliberations in the day were excited that finally "the battle is won"
"Am very happy that the bill has been passed" said Julie Juma Regional and Thematic Manager for Education and Youth at ActionAid Malawi "This is something that we have been fighting for since 2009 and it is going to bring a big difference to our advocacy work on child marriages and it will help us to end child marriages now that we have a legal backing"
Alice Harding Shackelford a country representative for UN Women in Malawi also shared her happiness and how UN Women has received the development "Ooh! We are excited, we are excited!" she said, "We are crying with joy and we are happy that finally the parliament has taken this step. It has been a long journey for the civil society and for the ministry"
"We know this is one step but very important step" she continued and thanked parliamentarians, civil society which kept advocating on the bill and congratulated "all the girls who are keeping hope eye in Malawi"
In an email response Women's Legal Resource Center (WOLREC) Programmes Officer Gift Mauluka said "This is a very good news. It is one of the great things that this government will be remembered for. The passing of the bill is one of those things which shows that government has the interest of the people as long as gender equality issues are concerned."
Commenting on legal technicalities observed in the bill particularly on raising of the marriage age from 15 to 18 years which is being considered as in gross conflict with Constitution provision in section 22 (7) "For persons between the age of fifteen and eighteen years a marriage shall only be entered into with the consent of their parents or guardians.", Julie Juma reacted that "The technicalities are always there" but Malawians should be happy that now there is a legal backing people can refer to and the other processes can be done from "now onwards"
Alice Harding Shackelford said on the same "There are many steps one is, we need the president to assent the bill, we need a bit of enforcement of the bill, we need to work with ministry of justice which is already in support of the bill and working on the amendment of constitution a package which is already in preparation"
She also highlighted "We need to start working on distribution and dissemination (of the bill) to make sure that law enforcement, judiciary, traditional authorities and others are aware that this is now being enforced by peace of legislation. So we have a lot of work to do and a lot of efforts but I think this shows that if we work together change is possible"
