A Rwandan who attains the age of 18 years might be allowed to marry legally, in case they apply for it from a competent authority and provide valid reasons, according to a draft law being debated in parliament this afternoon (March 18). The legal age for a person who intends to get married in Rwanda is currently at 21. This is one of the new proposed changes in a draft law governing persons and family. ALSO READ: Why law governing family, persons was amended In an explanatory note of the bill, government indicated that during consultations, it was proposed that the marriageable age be revised to 18 years as, at that age, a person has the right to have sexual relations but cannot legally get married. “This draft law proposes that a person with age of majority but who has not yet attained marriageable age, may apply, for reasonable grounds, to the civil registrar at district level the authorisation to get married,” the explanatory note of the bill reads in part. ALSO READ: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: The right to protection from defilement In Rwanda’s legislation, the age of majority is 18. This means that any person who has reached that age can enter a contract, have the right to sue and liability to be sued, as well as be legally accountable in case they commit a crime, as he/she is no longer a child, but rather he/she has become an adult. It is at that same age – 18 – that a person’s sexual consent starts, legally. Prohibited marriage Meanwhile, the bill, in its article 196 provides that marriage between persons who are related is prohibited The relationships are direct lineal kinship, collateral kinship up to the seventh degree, a person and his or her parents-in- law, an adoptive parent and the adoptee, an adoptive parent and the descendants of the adoptee. An adoptee and the spouse of an adoptive parent, an adoptive parent and the spouse of an adopted person, adopted persons from the same adoptive parent, and an adopted person and the children of an adoptive parent. Meanwhile, it provides the prohibition of marriage between adopted persons from the same adoptive parent, and an adopted person and the children of an adoptive parent may be lifted for serious reasons upon authorisation by a civil registrar.
