Colombia’s Congress has voted to eradicate the law that allowed child marriages with parental consent, after 17 years of campaigning against the law. This comes after eight failed attempts to pass the bill through the House and Senate.

The new proposal will ban the marriage of anyone under the age of 18 and aims to protect the rights of minors. However, President Gustavo Petro has yet to sign the proposal into law.

First presented in 2023, the proposal used the slogan “they’re girls, not husbands”, which aimed to reform the existing law that allowed 14-year-olds to be forced into marriage with their parents’ consent, subjecting young girls to violence and preventing them from obtaining opportunities for education and development.

“We do not want to see systematic violence and sexual exploitation of children continue. Colombia is making history because, for the first time, we succeeded in banning child marriage after trying eight times,” said Jennifer Pedraza, congresswoman for the Party of Dignity and Commitment and co-author of the bill, after the vote.

“So it’s a great message, not only for Colombia in terms of respecting the rights of boys and girls, but also for the world. Colombian childhood is important, we must protect it and we must take care of it. So we are very happy that Colombia has just left the shameful list of countries that allow child marriage,” she added.

Previous attempts by advocacy groups were thwarted by the opposition and indigenous communities, who believed the bill was a threat to tradition and the rights of parents. According to UNICEF, poverty is the key reason for child marriage, where girls from poor families are married off to a wealthier partner.

“A lot of times these girls have no say in entering a relationship and when they do they have even less. Their opinions don’t matter, their dreams don’t matter and they’re viewed as objects,” according to a Guardian report, Marta Royo, executive director of Profamilia, a non-profit organization that promotes reproductive health services.

Colombia now becomes one of the 12 nations in Latin America and the Caribbean to ban child marriage.

(With contributions from agencies)