‘Amend child protection laws’
The legal inconsistencies regarding marriage age in the Constitution, Acts of Parliament and statutes continue to leave Malawian children exposed to child rights violation, Child Justice Court Magistrate Esmie Tembenu has said.
Tembenu said this in Blantyre on Wednesday when the Polytechnic’s department of journalism and media studies organised a training workshop for journalists on child rights.
“The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, but it has some legal pieces that contradict and invalidate each other because as we stand, a 15-year-old is deemed eligible to marry in Malawi looking at the same Constitution,” she noted.
Tembenu has since called for the amendment of the Constitution.
Head of journalism and media studies at the Polytechnic, Ellard Manjawira, said the training is part of a Unicef funded project to enhance reporting on child issues