8 March 2016

Women parliamentarians committed to ending forced and underage marriage

This week, the Co-Chairpersons of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) New Zealand Group, Louisa Wall MP and Jo Hayes MP met with Shakti. Shakti is a national not-for-profit community organisation specialising in the area of women’s development, empowerment and violence intervention, prevention and awareness particularly for women, children and families of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origin.

“We were pleased to have the opportunity to tackle this critical issue alongside women leaders including Shakti, Human Rights Equal Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, and Beverley Turner of Pacific Women’s Watch New Zealand. The CWP supports the global campaign to end the abhorrent practices of child brides and forced marriage. Co-Chairperson Jo Hayes currently has a Members’ bill in the ballot to achieve this in New Zealand, the Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill,” said the Co-Chairpersons.

“Today is International Women’s Day and we call on both men and women in positons of leadership to bring an end to such practices, which are indicative of the low status women and girls have in many countries. We urge all countries, including New Zealand, to take decisive action to end gender inequality and build safe, stable families and communities.”

The Co-Chairpersons will also be involved in global collective efforts to end child marriage at the South Asia Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Child Marriage being held in Nepal and the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 60) being held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in March.

The CWP New Zealand Group is part of one of the largest international women’s organisations founded in 1989. It is a unique forum for women parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to come together and promote gender equality. The CWP works towards increasing women’s representation in Parliament and the mainstreaming of gender considerations in legislative and policy decisions.

ENDS

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