LA PAZ: Bolivia’s parliament has passed legislation to ban marriages and civil unions with minors, bringing the country closer to the 13 Latin American nations that have already outlawed the practice.
A 2014 law restricted marriages to adults, but allowed an exception for people aged 16 and 17 if they had authorization from parents or guardians.
Just over 4,800 such underage unions were registered between 2014 and 2023, according to the Ombudsman’s Office of Bolivia.
The Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday passed an amendment to close the loophole.
The bill had been greenlit by the senate in April and will now be sent to the president for promulgation.
“This is not just a law, it is a promise that our teenage girls will no longer be forced to marry, leave school or take on responsibilities that do not belong to them,” said ruling party senator and bill author Virginia Velasco in a press release.
Officials who register marriages involving minors may be prosecuted and jailed for up to four years, Velasco added.
Advocacy group Save the Children cited data saying 32,300 girls in Bolivia were married before the age of 15 in 2014, the most recent data available.
Child marriages are prohibited in 13 Latin American countries, including Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Bolivian parliament passes bill to end child marriages
https://arab.news/j47tx
Bolivian parliament passes bill to end child marriages
- The bill had been greenlit by the senate in April and will now be sent to the president for promulgation
- Officials who register marriages involving minors may be prosecuted and jailed for up to four years
Ukraine’s Zelensky: We have backed US peace proposals to get a deal done
- “The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told The Atlantic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had sought to back US peace proposals to end the war with Russia as President Donald Trump seeks to resolve the conflict before November mid-term elections.
Zelensky, in an interview published by The Atlantic on Thursday, said Kyiv was willing to hold both a presidential election and a referendum on a deal, but would not settle for an accord that was detrimental to Ukraine’s interests.
“The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told the US-based publication. “That’s why we started supporting their proposals in any format that speeds things along.”
He said Ukraine was “not afraid of anything. Are we ready for elections? We’re ready. Are we ready for a referendum? We’re ready.”
Zelensky has sought to build good relations with Washington since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 descended into a shouting match with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
But he said he had rejected a proposal, reported this week by the Financial Times, to announce the votes on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. A ceasefire and proposed US security guarantees against a future invasion had not yet been settled, he said.
“No one is clinging to power,” The Atlantic quoted him as saying. “I am ready for elections. But for that we need security, guarantees of security, a ceasefire.”
And he added: “I don’t think we should put a bad deal up for a referendum.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zelensky is not a legitimate negotiating partner because he has not faced election since coming to power in 2019.
Zelensky has said in recent weeks that a document on security guarantees for Ukraine is all but ready to be signed.
But, in his remarks, he acknowledged that details remained unresolved, including whether the US would be willing to shoot down incoming missiles over Ukraine if Russia were to violate the peace.
“This hasn’t been fixed yet,” Zelensky said. “We have raised it, and we will continue to raise these questions...We need all of this to be written out.”
