Tanzania's top court scraps girl marriages
bbc.com
International News
Tanzania's highest court has annulled a law which allows families to marry off girls as young as 14 years.
The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a ruling of a lower court that said child marriages infringed on girls' rights and were unlawful and unconstitutional.
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Tanzania's attorney general had appealed against the 2017 High Court ruling, which had struck off sections of the law which allowed the marriage of 14-year-old girls.
The court said girls could not marry before 18 - the age for boys.
The ruling is a milestone for the rights of girls.
According to the UN children's agency, 31% of girls in Tanzania are married before the age of 18, while 5% get married before their 15th birthday.