Child rights information network

The government of Saudi Arabia has stepped in to control all marriages of young women after an incident where a local court refused to nullify a marriage between a 58 yr old male and a 8 yr old girl. The current laws allow a father to marry off his daughter as they see fit to keep their bloodlines the way they want them to be. This has also led the way to parents marrying off their daughters for financial or political gain. The new laws will oversee all marriages of young women to make sure that “”preserve the rights, fending off blights to end the negative aspects of underage girls’ marriage,” and will not actually ban underage marriages in the country.

There have been reports of torture and other illegal activities following a protest that got out of hand sometime in early April. The World Organisation Against Torture is now investigating the incident which may have seen minors being tortured while in police custody. Reports from the incident in Chisinau between April 7 and 8 say that many of the detainees were held in poor conditions with very limited access to water and food. Those arrested, which were mostly minors, were also beaten badly with fists, feet, plastic bottles and even clubs. The investigation is ongoing and arrests will be made.

The United Nations committee for children’s rights is investigating how a 17 year old boy ended up in the Peruvian army. It seems the young man was enlisted as a 16 year old and was just 2 months shy of his 18th birthday when he was killed along with 13 other soldiers in a terrorist attack. The UN strictly prohibits anyone under the age of 18 to belong to the army of a UN State. The Peruvian government and the army itself is now required to find out how it is possible the young man got enlisted and what measures will be taken to prevent such an event from happening again.