The Parliamentary committees studying two draft bills on the marriage of minors and protection of children from early marriages decided after last Wednesday’s meeting to merge the three draft legislations to this effect, L’Orient Le Jour reported. To recall, the first draft was proposed by MP Ghassan Mkhaiber in 2014 on regulating child marriages but which not indicate the age of marriage; the second by MP Elie Kayrouz in 2017 on the protection of children from early marriage and which set the age of marriage at 18 years, and the last draft was submitted by minister of state for human rights, Ayman Choucair, who set the age of marriage at 16 years. According to Mkhaiber, the final draft will set the minimum age at 16 years, advising a civil judge to be responsible, and not the confessional institutions, for protecting minors aged between 16 and 18 years should they decide to marry. Commenting on the latest draft, NCLW president, Claudine Aoun Rukuz, said women’s organizations have refused to set the age of marriage at 16 years, and insist on raising it to 18 years. The newspaper on the other hand mentioned that religious sects might as well turn down the offer rejecting any interference in their powers in this regard. (L’Orient Le Jour, January 27, 2018)