The Eastern and Southern African region has some of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with an estimated 31% of young women and children being married before the age of 18.
Our series of four policy briefs, commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), highlight the need for the enactment of robust legislative and policy frameworks, which are clear, consistent, and in line with international and regional human rights standards; including the Southern African Development Community Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage (SADC Model Law).
The objective of the Model Law is to create a legislative yardstick based on agreed-upon concepts derived from international human rights instruments to which the Member States of SADC have already committed themselves. It is, therefore, a normative tool designed to facilitate the revision, reform, and improvement of domestic laws and policies by legislators and legislative drafters in the Member States. In the context of child marriage, the SADC Model Law defines a child as a person who is less than 18 years of age.