Colombo Declaration sets mimum marriage age at 18 in South Asia

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya signs the Colombo Declaration (Government Official News Portal)

Colombo: The minimum age for marriage should be 18 years, parliamentarians from South Asia have agreed.

The lawmakers from India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka who attended a two-day forum on Child Rights in South Asia have also agreed that the general law of the country should be supreme.

The Colombo Declaration stipulated that South Asia parliamentarians pledge their commitment to ensure that every child in respective countries has every right fulfilled.

‘We will do so through the powers vested in us, as representatives of the people, including children, to create real and lasting change, allocate resources, establish policy directions, and debate, shape, and enforce laws that protect children, the Colombo Declaration said.

South Asian Parliamentarians further pledged, to influence policies, programmes and budgets in favour of the most marginalized and excluded children, to ensure that no child is left behind, Sri Lanka’s Government Official News Portal reported.

Text of the Colombo Declaration

“On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), we, the undersigned Parliamentarians, are extremely encouraged by the way in which children’s lives have been transformed over the past three decades. The Convention has inspired governments in our countries to change laws and policies and make investments so that more children finally get many of the rights enshrined in the UNCRC.

This occasion also urges us to reflect on the fact that millions of children continue to suffer violations of their rights when they are denied adequate healthcare, nutrition, education and protection from violence. Still, childhoods are cut short when children are subjected to discrimination, are forced to leave school, do hazardous adult work, get married, suffer online abuse and exploitation, live through conflict and violence, or are in conflict with the law.

Global changes are changing childhood in significant ways, making the Convention more relevant than ever. Children today face new threats to their rights, but they also have new opportunities to realize their rights that previous generations did not have. We understand that as the world and childhoods continue to change, there is a pressing need to recommit to the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for every child, now and for future generations.

We, the undersigned Parliamentarians, pledge our commitment to ensure that every child in our respective countries has every right fulfilled. We will do so through the powers vested in us, as representatives of the people – including children – to create real and lasting change, allocate resources, establish policy directions, and debate, shape, and enforce laws that protect children. We pledge, in particular, to influence policies, programmes and budgets in favour of the most marginalized and excluded children, to ensure that no child is left behind. It was principally agreed that as a region the age of marriage for an individual should be a minimum of 18 years and that the general law of the country is supreme.”