child marriage

This memorandum discusses the link between child marriage and birth and marriage registration. Section I of this memorandum focuses on birth registration, including the importance of registration, government and civil society birth registration initiatives in Bangladesh and the factors that perpetuate low rates of birth registration and recommendations for overcoming them. Section II briefly introduces marriage registration, the unreliability of which also contributes to Bangladesh’s high rates of child marriage.

This memorandum discusses the context, causes, consequences, and legal framework of child marriage in Bangladesh

This Memorandum discusses the impact of personal laws on the treatment of child marriage within Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s antiquated personal laws relating to marriage fail to protect children,reinforce support for early marriage, and directly contradict statutory law in Bangladesh. Examining Bangladesh’s current legal framework highlights the problematic influence that discriminatory personal laws have on the fulfillment of national and international obligations concerning child marriage.

This memorandum examines the occurrence of child marriage in Bangladesh and explores its link with sexual harassment. Bangladesh has one of the highest occurrences of child marriage in the world. This high rate of marriage of girls below the age of 18 is due to a variety of causes, including patriarchal social mores, parental desire to safeguard girls against premarital sex and out-of-wedlock pregnancies (and the associated social stigma associated with these), and poverty, linked with the perception of girls as an economic burden.

The applicant, who was born to a mother in slavery, was sold to a local chief at age 12. For the next nine years she was subjected to rape, violence, and forced labor without remuneration. When Niger’s Supreme Court failed to convict her "owner" under Article 270.1-5 of the Nigerien Criminal Code, which made slavery illegal in 2003, the applicant brought her case before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice under Article 9(4) of the Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/01/05.

The Marriage (Amendment) Act 2002 amends the Marriage Ordinance (Cap. 54) of Kiribati. It provides that marriages involving individuals under the age of 21 who are not widowed are prohibited unless parental or guardian consent is obtained. Some sources claim that the age is 18 with consent, but the statutory law currently supports the age of 21.

The Marriage Act (the “Act”) stipulates that the minimum age for a legally valid marriage is 16 years old. However, a girl under the age of 16 who becomes pregnant, may apply to the High Court to be married to the father of the child. Marriage between parties younger than 18 years old must receive parental consent to marry. The Act prohibits marriage between family members or individuals related by blood. A superintendent registrar who knowingly authorizes a marriage which is void may be sentenced to two years in prison. 

The Marriage Act 1978-40, as amended by 1979-13, 1979-32, 1980-55, 1982-27, 1983-2, 1994-11 and 1994-22, prohibits marriages between family members, according to Schedule 1. The Act does not expressly include or prohibit marriage between same-sex couples; however, same sex marriage is not recognized. Although the concept of “marriage” is not defined, the Act prohibits marriage between persons under 16 in section 4 (Marriage between persons under 16 years void).

The Marriage Ordinance Act provides the minimum age for a marriage to be lawful in Samoa. The minimum age for marriage was originally set at 18 years for men and 16 years for women, with parental or guardian consent required where the man was under 21 or the woman was under 19. In 2021, the Ordinance was amended to raise and equalize the age of marriage. The minimum age is now 18 years for both men and women. The parental or guardian consent threshold was also adjusted so that consent is required if either party is under 21 years old.

The Supreme Tribunal of Justice reviewed a challenge to Article 46 of the Civil Code, which set different minimum marriage ages for men and women. The Court did not declare the rule unconstitutional, but recognized that gender-based distinctions were problematic and should be reconsidered. It explained that the provision was historically tied to women’s reproductive capacity and the emancipation of pregnant adolescents, though emancipation could be achieved through other means.