Child Marriage

Child marriage involves the marriage of anyone below the age of 18. It is the marriage of a child to an adult or another child, and may be legally condoned by national laws.

Child marriage, also known as early marriage, is a form of marital union of young children and adolescents that is practised or tolerated by many societies. These marriages are often given legal sanction because of legislative loopholes that in fact camouflage the sexual exploitation of children. And while a child cannot be expected to appreciate all the implications of marriage and give full and informed consent to it, their wishes are generally overlooked in the arrangement of such a marriage.

Child marriages are arranged in various ways and involve both boys and girls. It is more usual for girls to be married to boys and men who are older than them while boys are more commonly married to girls of a similar age. Such marriages may be arranged between two very young children as a means of maintaining or ensuring social, economic or political ties between families. In other cases, girls may be married to much older men who are more able to pay the dowries expected or demanded by a family. Many children may know their marriage partner and have been raised with him or her. Others may be married to strangers. Often, child marriages are arranged through a broker who is compensated in various ways.

Child marriage increases the vulnerability of girls in particular to sexual abuse and exploitation through all stages in their lives, and puts very young girls at risk of health problems associated with early sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Many girls married at a young age have limited schooling or training in self-sufficiency skills, which increases their economic dependence on husbands. Child marriage is also associated with later divorce or abandonment, which often means acute poverty for the girl or young woman and leaves them more vulnerable to resorting to some form of commercial sex to survive.

Child marriage can be regarded as a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), where a child is to be used for sexual purposes, through marriage, in exchange for cash, goods or kind. This is the case where parents or a family marry off a child in order to gain benefit or to support the family.
Different societies have different perceptions of childhood, but most governments have committed through the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to ensure the overall protection of children and young people aged under 18. In particular, governments have committed to safeguarding children from all forms of abuse and exploitation, as well as upholding their rights to health and protection from harmful traditional practices, which include child marriages. Any rationalisation of child marriage as the practice of tradition overlooks the fact that such marriages are often arranged within social milieu where the rights of children to protection as embodied in the CRC are absent. As such, these marriages may cater to a demand for children as sexual partners in ways that are not identified by society as abuse. Overall, the argument for tradition or common law practices lends legitimacy to this sexual abuse and exploitation of children. But child marriage should be seen in the context of CSEC and identified as such.

Even as the practice of child marriage exposes children, especially immature girls, to the physical and psychological harm that comes with sexual abuse and exploitation, the legal codes of many countries allow for the reclassification of married children as adults. This ambiguity is incorporated into the base of the CRC, with the definition of a child in Article 1 allowing for different perceptions of childhood where national laws set the age of majority below 18 years. As such, it could be interpreted that young people who gain majority at nine, as is the case in some places, are no longer required to be protected under a government’s commitment to the CRC. This opening provided for variation in the age of majority has weakened adherence to the CRC’s definition of a child. It is the definition of a child that needs clarification here.

Nevertheless, child marriages can be seen to contravene the rights of all children to protection, development and survival as defined throughout the CRC, as well as in other instruments that include articles reinforcing the right to marry based on full and informed consent. Where the marriage of children aged under 18 is permitted by a national legal code, without regard for whether young people have the opportunity and means to give full and informed consent, that country is violating its commitment to the Convention. By not harmonising national legal codes in accordance with the spirit of the CRC, such governments negate their duty to protect children.