Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government of Senegal regarding early and forced marriage.

We have raised the question of early and forced marriage in bilateral exchanges and official forums, including Senegal’s November 2018 Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council, in which one of our recommendations to the Senegalese Government, subsequently accepted, called for the implementation of existing laws on early and forced marriage, alongside child begging and child trafficking. We also fund multilateral partners such as UNICEF and the UN Population Fund who are working on early and forced marriage in country. Their representations to government include advocacy for the harmonisation of the family code with international conventions on child marriage and advocacy for child protection mainstreaming in policy development.