Recent Legal Responses to Child Marriage in Southern Africa : The Case of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malawi

This article analyzes law reform to end child marriage in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Malawi, and how the conflict between children’s rights and cultural rights is a serious obstacle. The author provides a statistical overview of the prevalence of child marriage in the selected countries before looking at the broader international context of child marriage. A country specific analysis of recent legal responses is then carried out before concluding with several proposals for continuing law reform to end child marriage. The author identifies several areas that have not been addressed by previous reforms, the most prominent of which being poverty, and suggests that efforts to end child marriage must be combined with practical ways of addressing factors that perpetuate harmful cultural practices linked to child marriage.