Child marriage is the marriage of any tradition, custom or religion, where one of the people in the marriage is under the age of 18. Globally it is estimated that one in five girls will get married before the age of 18. Child marriage takes away the childhood of those forced to marry, and children who marry early have worse education, health and economic outcomes in life.

Child marriages occur in Namibia but little action is taken to identify the children at risk, stop child marriages and to protect the children affected.

The Child Care and Protection Act makes it an offense to give a child in marriage or engagement if the child does not consent, or if the child is below the age of consent for marriage. However, cases are under-reported and hardly ever lead to prosecution and children under 18 in Namibia are still being married.

We hereby call on Government to actively take a stand against child marriage. We call on Government to put in place systems to better identify and support children at risk of child marriage, and to take action to address cases of child marriage that occur.

We call on the Government to uphold the importance of childhood, to ensure that children can fulfil their right to be children, to make all possible effort to ensure that all children receive an education, and to actively protect the best interests of all children in Namibia.