Girls Not Brides Uganda started this petition to the Honorable Speaker Kadaga of the Ugandan Parliament to pass the Pass the Marriage and Divorce Bill into law to address child marriage in Uganda
40% of girls in Uganda are married before their 18th birthday and 1 in 10 before their 15th birthday. There are 787,000 girls married before the age of 18 in Uganda, robbed of their childhood and achieving their full potential in all aspects of their lives.
Child brides face huge challenges because they are married as children Isolated and with limited freedom, married girls often feel disempowered. They are deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education and safety.
Child brides are neither physically nor emotionally ready to become wives and mothers. They face more risks of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, contracting HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence. With little access to education and economic opportunities, they and their families are more likely to live in poverty. In 2015, world leaders committed to end child marriage by 2030 through sustainable Development Goals (SDG’S). With only 11 years to go, it is time governments take stronger action to implement these commitments. If efforts to address child marriage are not scaled up significantly, a further 150 million girls will be married as children before 2030.
This September at the SDG summit, Heads of Sate are meeting for the first time since the adoption the SDGs. Now is the moment for our government to show they are serious about ending child marriage by telling the world the action they intend to take. We call on you, Honorable Speaker Kadaga, to make SDG Acceleration Action and outline your governments plan to implement and fund action on SDG 5.3 in Uganda, bringing an end to child marriage.
We request the Parliament Speaker to expedite the process of passing the Marriage and Divorce Bill 2009 into law that explicitly provides for the legal age of 18 years? Marriage in Uganda.
We must act now to save the hundreds of thousands of girls in Uganda at risk of child marriage. Sign the petition today!