Child marriage – any marriage involving a person under 18-years-old – is now illegal in Sierra Leone.
According to UN data, nearly a million young women in the West African nation were married before they turned 18. The country’s total population is around nine million.
Child marriage has been tied to lower education outcomes and higher domestic violence rates.
This week, Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio signed off on a bill prohibiting child marriage. First Lady Fatima Maada Bio said it will “change the narrative” for women in Sierra Leone.
Child marriage
Girls are six times more likely than boys to be involved in a child marriage. The practice is also more common among girls living in poverty.
Around 45% of child marriages occur in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh. A further 20% occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Sierra Leone.
The United Nations (UN) set out a target to end child marriage by 2030. However, it says the world is not on track to meet this target. An estimated 640 million women alive in 2023 were married as a child, according to global data from UNICEF.
Sierra Leone
Almost a third of women currently aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18 in Sierra Leone.
Around 9% of these women were married before the age of 15, according to the Child Marriage Data Portal.
Despite a decline in child marriages over recent decades, a UNICEF report estimated there were 800,000 child brides in Sierra Leone in 2020.
Legislation
Child marriage is now outlawed in Sierra Leone, after a ban was signed into law this week.
Government leaders from neighbouring countries, including Cabo Verde and Namibia, attended an equality event in Sierra Leone, which coincided with the passing of the bill.
Women’s rights advocate and First Lady of Namibia Monica Geingos urged global leaders to “leave children alone to grow,” saying that “it is easier to raise a broken child than a broken adult.”
“I hope it will be a seminal part of the story of how our women led the economic transformation of Sierra Leone, making our country a beacon of hope in Africa, where women have boundless opportunities to lead, determine their own future, and inspire the world”.
Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone
