THE KINGDOM OF LESOTHO COMBINED SECOND TO EIGHTH PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA forced to conform to the societal construct and undergo such practices and where they have not, they are ostracised by their communities and labelled as defiant and insubordinate. Just like FGM, these practises are not documented and therefore their prevalence is not known. There are also no laws which prohibit such practices. Early and Forced Child Marriages (EFCM) 348. According to the Marriage Act 1974, the minimum age of marriage is 21 years old. However, the law allows girls to marry at 16 and boys at 18 with the written permission from the Minister. The Children’s Protection and Welfare Act defines a child as anyone under the age of 18 but does not say anything about child marriages. 349. Despite legal prohibition of early marriages, UNICEF estimates that in Lesotho every 1 in 5 girls gets married before reaching their 18th birthday. 66 UNICEFs Demographic and Health Survey of 2014 shows that 17.7 percent of girls aged between 15-19 years were married. EFCM does not only hinder achievement of MDGs, but it also infringes the girls’ right to choose their partners at an appropriate age. It also violates their right to health (complications from pregnancy and childbirth are amongst leading causes of their death and exposure to STIs) and education.67 Administrative measures 350. Measures which have been adopted to deal with harmful practices in Lesotho include establishment of the Human Rights Commission whose legislative framework is in place although the Commission has no yet been operationalized; CGPU (whose mandate is discussed in Part A of this report), holding of public gatherings to dissemination information on the wrongfulness of these practices and involvement of traditional leaders in such campaigns. Since the Human Rights Commission is not yet operationalized, the 66 67 Girls Not Brides http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage Sunday Express “Escaping Child Marriage by a Whisker” January 31, 2017 128