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Girls and early Marriages
By Issa Toure
Associate Legal Officer
United Nations
The concept of
early marriage has no universally accepted definition. Another concept
very close to early marriage is the concept of child marriage. This one
also has no universally accepted definition.
The issue of early
marriage affects mainly girls. It can also affect boys to a lesser
extent; however, the following developments will focus on early
marriages in relation to girls.
Generally speaking,
an early marriage of a girl is a marriage that occurs at a period when
the girl has not attained yet the minimum age for marriage. The minimum
age for marriage is set up by the law and it varies from country to
country. In Cote d’Ivoire, for example, the minimum age for marriage is
18 years with respect to girls. In some other countries this age may be
less than 18 years. Every country has the discretion to decide which
specific minimum age will be applied at national level. The United
Nations Convention on Consent to Marriage (1964) urges States Parties to
take legislative action to specify a minimum age for marriage.
The above mentioned
Convention also stresses that (article 1) “no marriage shall be legally
entered into without the full and free consent of both parties”. In this
regard, the consent cannot be considered free and full when one of the
parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make an informed decision
about a life partner. In addition to this Convention international
binding or non-binding law provisions are related to this issue, such
as:
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Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
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Supplementary
Convention on the Abolition of Slavery (1956). The link between this
text and early marriages is that any marriage which is forced upon a
girl is considered as a practice similar to slavery.
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Recommendation
on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of
Marriages (1965).
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International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights including the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).
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Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
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African Charter
on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990).
The causes of
early marriage vary from one culture to another. The following are some
examples of these causes:
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Poverty. Early
marriage is sometimes considered as a means of economic survival. If a
girl is married early the family has one less mouth to feed. The
marriage can also be an opportunity for the family to get some
financial benefit. There is also the hope that, owing to the marriage,
the girl herself will be better off.
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Severe social
stress. In countries experiencing armed conflicts, social unrest or
any other serious emergency circumstances, there may be a rise in
early marriages. In this context there is usually an increase of
violations with respect to children’s rights in general, such as
enforced cohabitation, neglect, abandonment, abduction and child
slavery.
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Cultural
survival. In times when a society is under threats of losing its
culture, marrying a girl to someone within the same culture is
perceived as a way of conserving the culture by ensuring that the
children will be born and brought up in a safe cultural environment.
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Prevention of
pre-marital sex. In cultures where girl’s virginity is strongly
valued, early marriage is considered as a means of protecting girls
from pre-marital sex and disgrace. It is believed that girls who get
married at early age are more likely to be virgin by the time of the
marriage. In this context, the desire to protect girls and protect the
honour of the family is wrongly used as a justification of the
practice of early marriage.
As a result of the
above, mostly in African countries and other developing countries,
families and communities are making arrangements for marriage of girls
who are under 18 years of age or sometimes under 15 years of age.
It is plain that
the concerned girls are not physically, emotionally and mentally ready
to perform the obligations of marriage. They are required to get married
to significantly older men while they are not in a position to provide a
valid consent. The imposition of such marriages upon girls means that
girls’ childhood is cut short and their fundamental rights are
compromised.
Because of their
immaturity, young married girls are more vulnerable to exploitation.
They are required to carry out heavy amounts of domestic work,
demonstrate fertility and raise children while they are still children
themselves.
Moreover, these
marriages are usually unregistered and unofficial (informal unions).
Most of them cannot be found in any data collection system. This
circumstance makes more difficult any research work on the prevalence of
early marriages.
The consequences
of early marriage are varied. The following are some of them:
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High maternal
mortality: young married girls giving birth are more likely to die in
childbirth than adult women.
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Risk of domestic
violence. As stated above, young girls are often married to
significantly older men. The age difference reinforces the power of
the husband and exposes the girl at greater risk of abuse.
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Lower education
and work skills. Girls getting married at early age tend to drop out
of school and to miss any opportunity to develop other work skills.
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Divorce or
abandonment. Some desperate girls who have been forced into marriage
run away from their spouses in trying to escape from their unfortunate
situation. Others are abandoned by their spouses. They are left with
the responsibility of raising children without the financial support
of the husband making them likely to leave in extreme poverty.
Unless measures are
taken to address early marriage, it will continue to be a major obstacle
to the enjoyment of human rights as far as girls are concerned. The
following measures may be helpful if implemented:
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In countries
where the practice of early marriage is increasingly alarming, Early
Marriage Prevention Officers should be appointed by governments and
assigned to the implementation of official policies in this field.
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Governments
should require the registrations of all types of marriages whether
contracted according to the official law of the State or according to
religious law or customary law.
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It should be a
penal obligation for everyone attending an early marriage to report it
to the concerned authorities.
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Communities and
families, especially in rural areas, should be properly informed that
early marriages or any child informal unions, performed in breach of
the law, have no effect with respect to the law.
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Awareness should
be raised among populations about the negative aspects of early
marriage. The issue should be brought into public debate.
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