PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi on Wednesday revealed that there have been over 3000 child marriages in the last 20 years in Trinidad and Tobago.

Al-Wari, made the disclosure in Senate as he piloted the Miscellaneous Provisions Marriage Bill 2016 — that seeks to raise the age of marriage to 18, as recommended by the United Nations.

The bill also seeks to amend the Hindu Marriage Act of 1945, the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act of 1961 and the Orisha Marriage Act of 1999.

The attorney general said that between 1996 and 2016, the Registrar General recorded 3,478 child marriages, with marriage certificates showing that some of them were girls as young as 11 and 12 who were married to men as old as 36, 42 and 56.

“We have a phenomenon where the law, as it exists in Trinidad and Tobago, permits somebody who is more than two or three times the age of the child, of the girl, to be married to a man two and three times her age,” he said, adding these facts were taken from marriage certificates.

He dismissed the argument that child marriages take place in rural areas – stating that greatest number of these marriages come from urban areas.

Al-Wari also referred to the Hindu, Muslim and Orisha marriage acts which allow marriages from the ages of 14, 12 and 16 respectively in the case of girls.

The Bill proposes to criminalise the marriage of people under 18 by a marriage officer, who would be fined TT$50,000 and jailed for seven years for the offence.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of only eight countries in the world where someone can be married as early as age 12.

Seeking to dispel the argument by religious bodies that early marriages protect young girls from sexual immorality and unwanted pregnancy, the Attorney General said statistics also showed there were more child pregnancies than abortions.

Between 1999 and 2015, hospital records showed 15,231 children gave birth.

The statistics also showed there were 743 teenage abortions between 2011 to 2015.

Last year, 168 children between 11 and 16 became pregnant while 12 had abortions.

The bill comes after 26 years of public discussion and seven months of Government consultations on the matter and he had received numerous submissions from civil society on the controversial matter, some for and some against child marriages.

According to the Attorney General, the Bill seeks to protect the voice of the child.