A draft law to regulate minor marriages in Lebanon and to penalise offenders

The Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Commission for Human Rights, MP Ghassan Mokhayber, convened a press conference yesterday to announce that he submitted a law petition to regulate the marriage of minors.  This new law petition targets all such marriages contracted in Lebanon and not only marriages contracted by Lebanese.  It seeks to ensure that minors are not being coerced into marriages and will penalize clergy who contract such marriages and parents who facilitate them and ignore the orders of the judge (as the law requires the approval of juvenile court judge to contract such marriage).  The new law requires that the judge hears the minor before a marriage is allowed.  Mokhayber noted that this law petition follows the persistent work of women organizations and had received inputs from experts in the field.  He added that the petition will strengthen individual freedoms since minors who marry are often coerced to do so.

Source: Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar, Al Arabi Al Jadid, 30 September 2014

Following is the full text of the law petition which has been published on the As Safir website.