Nov 17th, 2018 (Nyamilepedia) — In a statement sent to Nyamilepedia on Thursday, the Programme Associate of Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), Peter Makun condemns the auction, and said marriage is supposedly an agreement and lifelong union between a man and a woman.
Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), in strongest term and categorically condemn the recent marriage arrangement auction for Elizabeth Nyalong in the Lakes State.
“Marriage is intended to be a holy union between two people with their mutual consent, I condemn Nyalong’s marriage arrangement because it becomes a lucrative business and a way to reap one off their wealth in the name of pride and fame against the simple unconditional love that pulls two birds together for life” said Peter Makun CPJ’s programme Associate.
The advocacy group, Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), calls upon the Government to implement South Sudan Child Act 2008 in an effort to address provision for parental responsibility, care and fostering of children in the country.
“The government must protect girls from early and forced marriages by implementing the child Act2008 that rights and protect children under age of 18” Reads part of the statement.
The right group believes that such an arrangement of Nyalong’s marriage obviously violates her rights because she acquiesced in a decision against her will.
“The recent marriage is a violation of both laws and personal human rights of Elizabeth Nyalong because it happened against her own will and at the sometime she is not at the marriageable age that is stated in constitution of South Sudan”
The Centre for Peace and Justice called upon all humanitarian actors in South Sudan particularly child protection agencies to raise awareness on early marriage.
“We call on all child protection actors and human rights entities to sensitize the community so that these negative cultural practices are eliminated from existence because they do violate rights of individual and limited or deny them from their rights of choice and decision” The statement continued.
The group believes that this kind of marriage could encourage the youth to practice criminal activities saying”
“These kind of marriages arrangement must stop now, because they may create a situation where young men will have to go and raid cattle to be able to enter the competition or auction of girls as it happened to Elizabeth Nyalong”.
In the last few weeks, human rights activists including women coalition have expressed concerns over the issue saying the auction of Nyalong on social media could spur other families to use social media for marriage advertisement in hopes to bargain for more wealth in return for their daughters.
