12 Oct Lawmakers To Ban All Child And Forced Marriages From Traditions And Religion
Photos: (left) filibini.blogspot.com, (right) Press Gazette.
Mga higala! All CHILD and FORCED MARRIAGES will soon be banned in the Philippines after lawmakers filed a bill to stop these unions, and deemed it as a form of violation against women and girls.
According to a report from Inquirer.Net, Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy and Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman recently filed House Bill 8440, a law that seeks to explicitly void all child marriages and forced marriages in the country from the very beginning (ab initio).
In the said bill, the lawmakers cited that over 47,000 girls around the world are married before the age of 18 every day, and 1 in 4 girls in countries like the Philippines will be married before they are 18, while 15 percent of women aged 20 to 24 years old were first married or in union before 18.
Moreover, under House Bill 8440, child and forced marriages are defined as:
“Any marriage entered into where one or both parties are below 18 or unable to fully take care or protect themselves because of a physical or mental disability or condition, solemnized in civil, church or in any recognized traditional, cultural or customary manner.”
And once it’s enacted into law, the following penalties will await violators:
Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net
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