To avoid the child marriage and protect minors, representative Cinthia Verónica Segovia Colunga seeks to promote an initiative to reform the Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents of San Luis Potosí, which was turned over to committees for analysis and possible approval.
This, with the objective of harmonizing the provisions of the General Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents, with the regulations on the matter in the State, which establishes the obligation of state and municipal authorities to adopt comprehensive measures for the protection of girls, boys and adolescents against harmful practices of transfer for consideration or free of charge for the purposes of formal and informal or customary union.
The proposal proposes to reform article 41, of the Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents of the State of San Luis Potosí, to read as follows: “It is up to those who exercise their parental authority, guardianship or guardianship and custodythe primary obligation to provide, within their possibilities and economic means, sufficient living conditions for their healthy development.”
The state and municipal authorities, within the scope of their respective powers, will contribute to this end by adopting appropriate measures. To guarantee this right, The legal age for marriage is set at eighteen years.
These measures must establish affirmative actions with respect to girls, boys and adolescents who are part of indigenous communities, Afro-Mexicans, people with disabilities, in situations of migration or displacement or in social exclusion.
In the explanatory memorandum it is established that the child marriagealso called early marriagerefers to any civil, religious and consensual union in which at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age.
In 2012, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) noted that around 400 million women between the ages of 20 and 49 worldwide had married or partnered before turning 18. This figure increased to 700 million in 2016 and if the current holding is maintained it could increase to 950 million in 2030.
Originally published in The Sun of San Luis