Richard?Lord

The Cana­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er to Port-of-Spain, G�rard Lat­ulippe, says child mar­riage is a hu­man rights is­sue and has pro­vid­ed $50,000 to the Ro­tary Club of Pe­nal to as­sist in an aware­ness pro­gramme to stop child mar­riages in that com­mu­ni­ty.Lat­ulippe said that in an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian at his of­fice on Sweet Bri­ar Road, St Clair, last week.

Child mar­riages were out­lawed in Cana­da," adding the as­sis­tance was pro­vid­ed be­cause "we thought that it was such an im­por­tant mat­ter (to deal with)."He said while the T&T Gov­ern­ment has made no re­quest for as­sis­tance, the High Com­mis­sion was pre­pared to pro­vide ad­di­tion­al as­sis­tance if re­quest­ed by T&T.

"We are (will­ing to help) be­cause we have ex­pe­ri­ence on that is­sue," he added.

Lat­ulippe said it was pro­vid­ed via the Cana­da Fund for Lo­cal Ini­tia­tives (CFLI).He said in his coun­try child mar­riage was not a faith-based is­sue, adding there were about 100,000 Hin­dus from T&T liv­ing in Toron­to "and they do re­spect the law in Cana­da."

Lat­ulippe stressed that the of­fi­cial con­duct­ing a child mar­riage is com­mit­ting a crime.

"If you at­tend a mar­riage of some­one younger than 16 years old, you are com­mit­ting a crime and you can go to jail."

He said the Cana­di­an Gov­ern­ment had in­vest­ed $80 mil­lion on pro­grammes in­ter­na­tion­al­ly to pre­vent child mar­riages via the Unicef, UNF­PA and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions over the past years.

The T&T Gov­ern­ment is seek­ing to out­law child mar­riages by in­creas­ing the min­i­mum age for mar­riage from 12 and 14 as ob­tained un­der the Hin­du and Mus­lim Mar­riage Acts to 18 which is the le­gal age for sex­u­al con­sent.

Pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion Har­riper­sad Ma­haraj and Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Sat­na­yaran Ma­haraj said the le­gal age should not be in­creased but that has found no sup­port from Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who agrees that it should be in­creased to 18.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the is­sue of child mar­riage was not a re­li­gious is­sue but one of hu­man rights.Lat­ulippe said he want­ed to com­mend the T&T At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi for tak­ing steps to ad­dress the is­sue of child mar­riage.