Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection succeeded in freezing the marriage of two Yemeni children for five years.
The parents of Naima Abdullah Al-Shuwaitir, aged 13, and Hafez Mansour Hamid Al-Hasani, aged 10, signed a written commitment not to complete the marriage until the children reach an age at which they can make their own decision freely. The children themselves said they did not want to marry.
Seyaj said the intervention was the second successful effort in less than two weeks to stop a child marriage in Yemen. The organization again called on the Yemeni authorities to enact legislation criminalizing child marriage below a clear minimum age and to address the social and economic causes that allow the practice to continue.
