Sometimes you need to speak as many languages as possible to put your message across. The ongoing “Too young to be Married” media campaign has captured the attention of the youth especially those who listen to radio stations or are actively engaged on various social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter.

This being a campaign that’s intended to raise awareness and empower both girls and boys with correct information, skills and networks to enable them recognize child marriage and early pregnancy as a gross violation of their rights and take mitigating action is key in championing Child marriage in South Sudan, we understand that music is one way we can easily pass the message to this category of people.

The song titled “Child Marriage” was composed and produced by Dj Cent, a prominent South Sudanese artists who has been at the frontline of advocacy against GBV using his voice/music to raise awareness on issues of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in South Sudan. Dj Cent is famously known in South Sudan for his song “In-law why are you beating my sister”. A song that dominates radio playlists and programs/events in South Sudan especially during 16 Days of Activism.

Dj Cent at Radio One during a talk-show about His new song on ending Child Marriage in South Sudan

He did it again with this new song he produced for the “Too Young to be Married” media campaign. In this song, he highlights the effects of child marriage child at an individual, family and community level. In the video he illustrates the difference between a young girl who is married off at an early age and the other who is sent to school and marries at a later age.

CREW Staffs together with the artist had four (4) radio talk shows on Miraya FM, Eye Radio, City FM and 87.9 Radio One-South Sudan. These talk shows focused on the new song and the song is already becoming a hit on these radio stations. During the talk show while premiering the song, a number of listeners called in to appreciate the initiative taken by Crown the Woman, UNFPA and DJ Cent to end child marriage. Here is the audio link to the song:

http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/30228390 and the video is also being played on various. you can check it out on youtube as well!

In South Sudan, people often use “culture” as a justification for most forms of violence against women especially when it comes to issues to do with marriage. Child marriage is literally accepted as part of cultural practices and traditions in customary laws in South Sudan, the same customary laws whose customs and traditions are used as a source of legislation. Despite the fact that the government of South Sudan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which have been localized, the parliament as well passed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children, which prohibits child marriage. The legal framework in South Sudan that governs child marriage consists of the Interim Constitution of 2011, the Child Act of 2008, the Penal Code of 2008, the Criminal Procedures Act of 2008, the Local Government Act of 2009, and the Peace Agreement, which is supreme over Customary Laws and by-laws practiced by chiefs in all states. But all these efforts are strongly hindered by culture backed by customary laws that run the show in South Sudan when it comes to Child Marriage.

To bring this discussion to the attention of the public, CREW had the opportunity to engage with the Executive Director of Steward Women, a women’s organization that provides legal services through its established mobile community based legal aid centers /courts. Mrs. Josephine Chandiru shared her experience fighting for justice for women in South Sudan. “Access to justice for women and girls is just on paper, it’s not in reality” she said. Even a few victims who take legal action come back and beg the organization to drop the case due to lack of support from their family, pressure and to some extend victims are threatened and for fear of their lives choose to drop the case and be silent, she added. Rule of Law must prevail for effects such as the one Steward Women has in place to move smoothly and be impactful, and that right there is our biggest challenge in South Sudan.

We were also joined by Mr. Philips Anyang Ngong, a human rights lawyer who through his organization, “Advocates Without Borders” has been strongly advocating for that “marriageable age” to be defined in the constitution. His organization filed a petition in 2017 at the supreme court of South Sudan that is being looked at now at the second opinion to clarify and constitutionalize marriageable age. “Besides the use of customs and the unclear legal age of marriage, South Sudan has the Child Act 2018 that has not yet been operationalized” says Mr. Philips. During the radio talk-show, Mr. Anyang was able to share in depth the gabs in the constitution and challenges they face in this field and gave recommendations and what needs to be done constitutionally to end Child Marriage in South Sudan. The talk show was a very insightful show as he interacted with listeners who called in to ask him several questions as well as those that appreciated the topic and also shared their opinions regarding the weak legal framework in South Sudan.

There are various provisions from the different laws that are contradictory and full of loopholes that make it difficult to win child marriage cases in courts so as to establish a legal precedent.

Mr. Philips Anyang, A human rights lawyer during a radio talkshow on understanding the legal framework with regard to protecting of girls from Child Marriage in South Sudan

Marriageable age is undefined, the customary laws that govern child marriages are recognized in the constitution, the Penal Code criminalizes the would-be husband who marries an under-age child but not those who make decisions or preside over it. There is no provision that protects a minor boy who impregnates a girl even if she is of the same age, so boys are not equally protected. Abduction of girls for marriages, giving out girls as blood money for crimes committed by males of the family, and inheritance of girls after the death of their sisters are all happening at a time when they are not legally able to give consent as a child. The rewarding of rapists with marriage
of the rape victim as a way to overcome stigma
and or bring compensation to the girls’ families
has been characterized by stakeholders as an appalling miscarriage of justice and recommended that criminal acts such as rape should not be amenable to arbitration through the customary laws but addressed through the statuary courts with stiff penalties.

All these contradictions between and within the pieces of legislations frustrate efforts in place to end Child Marriage in South Sudan.

To end Child Marriage, a functioning legal framework is vital, the Ministry of Justice has a lot to do here. It’s heartbreaking to see constitutional post holders engage in acts of child marriage and they go unpunished.

For the past two months, CREW has been conducting mentorships in six (6) secondary schools namely; Juba Day, Promised Land, Don Bosco, Nile Model, Juba Diocesan and Juba Commercial secondary school). This program was intended to enhance the students’ understanding of School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV), the various forms of SRGBV, its effects or consequences on students and, Prevention and Response mechanisms.

Nancy, One of CREW mentors engaging with her group of students

CREW with support from the trained volunteer mentors were able to reach out to 1,470 students, (862 girls and 608 boys). This mentorship was very effective because of the students overwhelming participation, remarkable knowledge on GBV especially  SRGBV, and their willingness to spearhead prevention and response both in schools and at their community levels. Their knowledge on SRGBV confirmed how impactful CREW’s last year’s engagement with these students during the establishment of the GBV Prevention Clubs in their schools were.

The students emphasised the need to engage teachers and parents in this process. Other students had a moment of awakening and acknowledged how they had unknowingly either been inflicting some of the SRGBV forms on other students or have unknowingly been violated by their peers. This mentorship program gives these young boys and girls, especially the young girls who in most cases are the most vulnerable an opportunity to build and increase their social assets and safety nets to protect themselves from violence and respond to threats and incidents of violence.

Confidence: A student giving her opinions while the mentor looks on.

All this would not have been possible without the unwavering support from our well informed volunteer mentors who availed themselves despite their busy schedules from the start of the mentorship program to the end. They mentored the students in a much easier and practical way by giving examples from their real life experiences as a reference to school related gender based violence. By showing vulnerability they made it easy for the students to relate and also share openly. The mentorship did not only enhance the student’s capacity on SRGBV but also built a bond between students and the mentors.

On the other hand, being end of the academic year (final term), it was not easy to have these schools give us the dates and hours we needed to effectively engage with the students. Some schools could only give us 3hours of their time which limited our ability to fully exhaust the discussions with the students. A few mentorship programs in some schools were postponed from their initial dates to other dates due to unforeseen changes in school programs. In most schools, the mentorships didn’t involve candidate classes (Senior four Students) because schools wanted them less engaged in any extra-curricular activities and focus their preparations on the upcoming National Examinations.

A student during a discussion on SRGBV

However, with this experience, we have learnt to be more strategic when designing programs in schools. To ensure inclusivity of all classes and students including candidates and have ample time, it’s important to plan such extensive programs/activities during the first two terms.

This intensive process also made us realize that team-work is the absolute recipe for getting any work done with the utmost success. We were able to achieve all this within a short period of time because of the combined efforts of volunteer mentors, CREW staffs, volunteers from respective schools that did the coordination on ground and extra support from various service providers.

Some up-close beautiful mentor-students moments