GSP + no “child’s play”
Negotiations between the government and the European Union (EU) on child rights in Sri Lanka have centered on the contentious issue of age of marriage as a broad subject in order to regain the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) + benefits by next May the latest.
The EU has been negotiating with the government on a number of issues pertaining to the 15 violations by Sri Lanka as a result of which the country lost the GSP plus concessions in June 2010.
In the latest round of discussions between the government and the EU the issue of the age of marriage in Sri Lanka was taken up but no specific reference was made to any particular religious community, the EU Head of Political, Trade and Communication Section Paul Godfrey told the Business Times on Thursday.
In fact, he said the debate on the Muslim Marriage Act lately “was a surprise to us”.
This issue has opened up a can of worms among the minority Muslims who have taken to the streets protesting against the government’s stance that GSP + could be obtained by repealing the minimum age of marriage of Muslims.
He noted that during the discussion the government representatives had stated that they had been involved in engaging a number of stakeholders in this regard on generally the country’s three systems of marriage – the Kandyan, Jaffna Tamil and Muslim.
The EU understanding is that the government has been talking to the relevant community leaders in this respect.
Mr. Godfrey pointed out that any law that allows children to get married would have had a dialogue and he believes this issue would have been raised even when Sri Lanka was granted the GSP + concessions at the inception.
However, the concessions would have been granted to the country based on the then government’s “clear intention to get progress in those areas”, he explained.
In this respect, he noted that this concern of the age of marriage was “not something that had come up in the last few months,” alone.
On the other hand, how the EU sees this situation is connected to the implementation of human rights with Sri Lanka being a signatory to the International Convention on Rights of the Child among other related conventions.
Meanwhile the Muslim community has been studying the Muslim Marriage Act over the past few years under a committee chaired by, retired Supreme Court judge Salim Marsoof to review and bring about some amendments to it as a community effort.
Mr. Marsoof told the Business Times that they have reached a consensus on the age of marriage but no specifics were detailed but stated that it would be above 12 years.
Under section 23 of the present Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, a girl must not be given in marriage if she is below 12 years without the permission of the Quazi (Muslim court).
The government had approached the community on a report of the age of marriage but this is yet to be submitted. The committee is to submit a complete document with all amendments to the Act in December this year.