Anti-child marriage act below par: NHRC chief

Bangladesh government’s latest Child Marriage (Restraint) Act-2017 is upsetting, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Kazi Rezaul Haque said today.

“We all were hoping that it would prevent child marriage, but now there are provisions to marry off a 10-year-old boy,” he said at a programme held in Dhaka.

He placed hopes on the guidelines of the law and said: “We must make sure that the regulations are child-friendly. We must make sure that it actually prevents child marriage.”

The national human rights boss was speaking at a campaign launch aimed to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against children – organised by World Vision.

82% children victim of violence

Speaking at the event, NHRC boss Kazi Rezaul Haque proposed of forming a child commission, pulling reference that 45 percent of Bangladesh’s population is children.

The campaign brought to fore some statistics where it said that, in Bangladesh, 82 percent of children aged 1-14 are victims of violence.

While 57 percent of children are victims of violence at workplaces, 77 percent are subjected to corporal punishment, World Vision said in its papers.

Fred Witteveen, Bangladesh national director for World Vision, was present at the launching.