The President of Sierra Leone announced on July 2, 2024, the promulgation of a law prohibiting child marriage. This law provides for 15 years in prison and a fine of at least 50 thousand Leone (about 3500 Canadian dollars for any perpetrator of child marriage. By criminalizing the marriage of anyone under the age of 18, the bill aims to protect Sierra Leonean girls from a deeply harmful practice that has long violated their rights and hindered their education, health and well-being.

Child marriage is a common practice in West Africa where 4 out of 10 girls are married before the age of 18. The enactment of this law is therefore a major step forward in the fight against gender-based violence. It is the result of years of struggle by African and Sierra Leonean women, in which WiLDAF-AO plays an important part through its education, awareness-raising and mobilization programs in the field in favor of the abandonment of the practice, as well as through advocacy for the adoption of laws and policies to put an end to the phenomenon.

WILDAF-AO commends the courage of the Sierra Leonean authorities and encourages them to take the necessary measures to disseminate and effectively implement this law, as well as to bring to a successful conclusion the ongoing process for the adoption of a law prohibiting female genital mutilation, another scourge affecting girls in Sierra Leone.

The network congratulates Sierra Leonean women’s rights organizations, including AMNET, ROAJELF and LAWYERS, partners of WiLDAF-AO, whose work led to the adoption of this law.

WILDAF-AO invites all States in the sub-region to follow this fine example that Sierra Leone has just set us by ensuring strong protection for girls.

It is also an opportunity for WILDAF-AO to remind ECOWAS of the need to take the necessary measures to accelerate the effective implementation of the 2019-2030 roadmap for the prevention of and response to child marriage adopted in January 2019, and whose overarching objective is to end child marriage in the ECOWAS region.