The Marriage Bill intends to introduce the definition of child to the Marriage Act and defines a child as having the same meaning as assigned in the constitution.

The import of the addition of the new definition is that the child is now construed as someone under the age of eighteen (18) years.

In terms of the Marriage Act, a child is someone under the age of sixteen (16) years.

This will be a progressive amendment as it will reduce the number of child marriages.

Further, it provides for consistency and conformity of the definition of a child not only with the Constitution of the Constitution, which is the highest law of the land but with international standards. Zambia is one of the countries that ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, which defines a child as any individual under the age of eighteen. The definition will also be consistent with the definition under the Children’s Code Act.no. 12 of 2022

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