Regrettably, it is uncertain whether Tuesday's Senate vote on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriage) Bill 2016 will actually lead to protection of girls from too-early marriage. The Bill has to be passed by the House of Representatives before it becomes law, and it will likely be passed now that the AG has framed it as only needing a simple majority, which the PNM can provide.
However, having been passed, it is likely that a constitutional case will be kick-started to establish whether or not constitutional freedoms were violated and whether or not the AG was correct to tactically switch from a three-fifths to simple majority passage.
No one can tell at this point whether such technical considerations regarding constitutional law will lead to the amendments being overturned or upheld. In the end, it will become about a battle between UNC and PNM, and religious patriarchs versus the state. The best interest of girls, whether or not they represent a minority of marriages, will disappear from priority.
The UNC, under Kamla Persad-Bissessar, helped to create this disgusting situation. In government, the party courted and relied on religious conservatives, and was unwilling to risk ire of this small but vocal segment for a more progressive approach to women's and girls' rights. In last Wednesday's debate, they brought in temporary senators to present perspectives, clearly vetted by the party, which the wider population found shocking and to partially misinformed, particularly in terms of why the Children's Act's (2012) "Romeo Clause" decriminalises adolescent sexual relations.
The UNC's approach was to friend-up all sides simultaneously, thereby showing only supreme self-interest. On the one hand, Persad-Bissessar has said she herself supports raising the age of marriage to 18 years old. On the other, the party brings in men who oppose that position, under the guise of inclusion and representativeness. Such mixed messaging sparked concern, certainly in the women's movement, that sending the Bill to a Joint Select Committee would lead to it being buried there or watered down to assuage patriarchal interests.
Keep in mind that the legal age for girls to marry is 18 years old in India and Iraq, and 16 years old in Pakistan and Egypt. So, let's be clear that there is no single Hindu, Christian or Muslim perspective on the legitimacy of marrying girls at 14 or 16 years old.
It's in this context of the UNC's unwillingness to do the best thing for girls that the AG may have wrongly made his tactical switch. The fact that the need for a three-fifths majority was included in the December 19, 2016 version of the Bill is itself a sign that he and the drafters recognised that there were constitutional implications.
The expediency with which those paragraphs were removed was bound to be seized on by the UNC as the AG playing politics with law. So, the AG may have to take his chances in court, at taxpayers' expense, risking having this key amendment overturned on a technicality, at girls' expense. I applaud his willingness to push through this legislation, and here the UNC has not one moral leg to stand on, but the AG's decision has made the process more politicised and messy.
Speaking of messy moralities, the UNC is now using language of "respect for family life" in its constitutional counter punch, showing instead no respect for globally-established, detrimental effects of early-marriage on girls, and global conventions to which we are a signatory. It is unbelievable that girls' individual life chances are still being subordinated to those of the "family" in a way that is not applicable to boys, with party leadership ignoring such legal inequality.
The Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriage) Bill 2016 simply seeks to raise the age of marriage to 18 years old. Women's organisations have argued that possible amendments should have included an exception allowing both girls and boys to marry from 16 years old, with counseling and parental permission or, instead, a magistrate's permission given with these adolescents' capacity, choice and best interest in mind.
As this debate moves to the House, the nation must insist that girls' self-development and rights are our priority. If you agree, make those 41 MPs represent you. This legislation is overdue.