By The Jerusalem Post (Politics) | Created at 2024-11-15 16:05:18 | Updated at 2024-11-15 18:42:09
2 hours ago
Colombian lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday which would outlaw child marriage, according to international media reports.
The bill passed after 17 years of campaigning from advocacy groups, and having failed at getting house and senate approval eight times, the Guardian reported.
“We do not want to continue seeing the systematic violence and sexual exploitation of children. Colombia is making history because, for the first time, we have managed to ban child marriage after trying eight times,” Jennifer Pedraza, a congresswoman for the Dignity and Commitment Party and co-author of the bill, reportedly said after the vote. “So it is a great message, not only for Colombia in terms of respect for the rights of boys and girls, but also for the world. Colombian childhood is important, we have to protect it and we have to care for it.
Colombia is now one of 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to have entirely banned marriage for individuals under the age of 18.
