Warning that there are far reaching implications for the nation’s children should Child Marriage provisions remain in the Marriage Act, the Executive Director of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA), Kobe Smith, is of the view that there is nothing stopping the National Assembly from abolishing all laws that provide for Child marriages.

While the Marriage Act establishes 18-years-old as the minimum legal age for marriage, it also allows exceptions that permit the marriage of persons under 18, including girls as young as 16 with parental consent and even younger in circumstances such as pregnancy.

In an interview that will air this evening on SOURCES, Smith said those provisions fly in the face of the Constitution, and should be removed entirely. 

“It is time for us to come to the place to say, are we really in this country supporting children’s rights? I mean, yes, we have the Rights of the Child Commission; yes, we have the Child Care and Protection Agency; yes, there are safeguards; yes, we signed onto the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is incorporated into Guyana’s Constitution and Guyana’s Constitution says that no law is higher than the Constitution, so the Constitution is the supreme law of the country. Now, if the Constitution says that, how could we have provisions in the Marriage Act that is completely in consistent with the Constitution because the Constitution incorporates the Convention on the Rights of the Child that says we always should do what is in the best interest of children,” Smith said.

He said 2026 should be the year that the provisions are removed from the Marriage Act.

Together with Blossom Inc, the GRPA is organizing a Town Hall meeting to bring together a wide cross-section of stakeholders including parents, the Government, the Parliamentary Opposition, the Private Sector, religious leaders and international organizations to discuss the vexing issue.

Smith said no child should be subject to a marriage.

“No person below the age of 18 should be married. Because if you have a situation like that, and it is even so problematic in the law, that the law in a very indirect and hazy way provides for adults who get young girls pregnant, men who get young girls pregnant to actually marry them. When you ready it, the interpretation you get from it, is that you can have perpetrators of violence marrying young girls and that is a problem,” Smith explained.

He warned that there are far reaching public health and social implications.

“Because how it is that you are going to be having persons below the age of 18 becoming married, they are going to be pregnant of course, that adds to the stats of adolescent pregnancy. We have to be concern about whether the adults in the marriage will determine, well, you can’t go to any health centre for a contraceptive; I want more children from you. You can’t finish CSEC; I don’t want you to go to university,” the GRPA Executive Director explained.

According to estimates from Girls Not Brides, 32% of girls in Guyana are married before age 18 and 6% before age 15, while 12% of boys marry before the age of 18. The figures place Guyana among countries with the highest prevalence of child and early marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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