The minimum age of marriage was 13 for men and 12 for women, but formal betrothal could take place before that and often was. The Talmud advises men to marry at the age of 18 or between the ages of 16 and 24. [280] Child marriage under the age of 18 is widely recognized in international human rights treaties as a discriminatory global practice that hinders the development and well-being of hundreds of millions of girls. Using a new global policy database, we analyze national legislation regarding the minimum age of marriage, exceptions allowing marriage in previous years, and gender differences in laws. Although our longitudinal data indicate an improvement in the incidence of countries with laws prohibiting marriage before the age of 18, significant gaps remain in the elimination of legal exceptions and gender-based discrimination. Ancient Roman law required wives to be at least 12 years old. In ancient Roman law, early marriages to wives between the ages of 12 and 25 required the consent of the bride and her father, but in late antiquity, Roman law allowed women over the age of 25 to marry without parental consent. [9]: 29-37 Recent studies suggest that protective laws may indeed be associated with a lower prevalence of child marriage and lower adolescent birth rates. Research using DHS data in sub-Saharan Africa found that a minimum age of marriage of 18 years or older in national laws (general minimum age of marriage, minimum age with parental consent, and age of sexual consent) was associated with lower rates of child marriage in households (Maswikwa et al. 2015). In addition, a longitudinal study of national child marriage laws and adolescent fertility rates found that countries with strict laws setting a minimum age of marriage at 18 without exception had larger declines in adolescent fertility rates (Kim et al. 2013).
Building on these new findings on the importance of national minimum age of marriage laws and previous work examining child marriage policies through CRC and CEDAW reports (Melchiorre 2004), this study contributes to the first detailed analysis of child marriage laws using data based on original laws globally. This is an important advance in the literature, as it provides comprehensive and up-to-date and historical data on the national minimum age of marriage, including analyses of exceptions that allow the minimum age to be lowered in certain circumstances. In the reports of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, countries do not uniformly indicate the existence and nature of exceptions in their legislation on the minimum age of marriage. As a result, these reports are a less reliable source of data. In addition, countries are expected to submit reports to these human rights committees every four and five years, respectively. Therefore, there is a delay in the availability of this data, while data based on the original legislation can be updated annually. If exceptions to parental consent at the minimum age are included in the analyses, the minimum age for marriage distribution changes significantly (see Figures 2 and 3). In six countries (3%), legislation does not set a minimum age for marriage with parental consent. In other words, children of both sexes can be married below the general minimum age of marriage, with no lower legal limit, as long as their parents agree. The minimum age of marriage for boys, including exceptions based on parental consent, is below 18 in 63 countries (33%).
In one country (Sudan), boys can be married at 10 years, in one country (Lebanon) they can be married at 13 years, in 14 (7%) they can be married between 14 and 15 years, and in 41 other countries (21%) they can be married at 16 or 17 years (see Figure 3). Again, many more countries allow early marriage of girls. In six countries (3%), girls can be married between the ages of 9 and 13 or during puberty, in 30 countries (16%) at age 14 or 15, and in 57 countries (30%) at ages 16 or 17 (see Figure 2). In this study, two samples were analyzed to obtain both an overall overview using current data and an overview of changes over time for a subset of countries. The 2013 cross-sectional analysis included data on legislation from all 191 UN Member States, for which information was both available and clear. We were unable to code two countries: St. Kitts and Nevis because of unavailable source information, and Myanmar because its legal requirements were ambiguous. The sample for the longitudinal analyses was collected as part of the Maternal and Child Health Equity 2 research program, which aims to investigate how important social policies affect the burden of disease in children and women. This sample includes 106 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) included in the DHS and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, for which we were able to collect comprehensive comparable information on minimum age of marriage laws between 1995 and 2013. The LMIC countries in this sample represent the countries with the highest early marriage rates. 1.This database can be explored in more detail on our website: worldpolicycenter.org/topics/marriage/policies. As mentioned earlier, this study analyzed the minimum age for marriage of the laws of 191 countries in 2013.
Overall results and results by region are presented. In addition, analyses of legislative changes in 106 countries from 1995 to 2013 were conducted and presented. Our longitudinal data from 1995 to 2013 show that child marriage laws have been adopted and strengthened over time. Consistent with global policy theory on how changes in international institutions and norms affect outcomes and laws at the national and local levels (Boli and Thomas 1999), our analysis of the 106 LMICs in our longitudinal sample shows greater adherence to the international standard of a minimum legal age of marriage of 18 over time. The proportion of countries in our longitudinal sample that allowed girls to marry with parental consent 18 years ago decreased significantly, from 80% to 57% between 1995 and 2013. During this period, the gender gap in the legal minimum age has narrowed. For example, the proportion of countries where the minimum age of parental marriage was lower for girls than for boys increased from 66% in 1995 to 44% in 2013. The proportion of countries with a difference of three to four years in the minimum age of marriage with parental consent fell from 27% in 1995 to 15% in 2013. However, gender differences in the level of legal protection persist. Further analysis and longitudinal data are needed to examine the role of international treaties as standard-setting mechanisms and their interaction with national factors in shaping national policy reforms. At the global level, child marriage is included in Goal 5 «Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls» under Goal 5.3 «Eliminate all harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation». In 2016, UNICEF and UNFPA joined forces as part of a global programme to accelerate action to end child marriage in 12 countries with the highest rates of child brides.
In South Asia, it is being implemented in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. For the first time, existing strategies in areas such as health, education, child protection, water and sanitation are brought together in a single holistic programme with common plans and objectives. The programme will work in partnership with governments, civil society organizations and young people themselves, applying methodologies that have proven successful on a large scale. Analyses show that legislation regulating the minimum age of marriage discriminates widely against women. Fifty-nine countries around the world currently allow girls to marry at a younger age than boys with parental consent. Laws allowing girls to marry at a younger age than boys reflect a common pattern of gender discrimination and a gendered understanding of women`s roles and abilities. In addition, these legal frameworks reinforce rather than close gender gaps in rates of child marriage and the harmful effects of the practice on girls. Although these gender gaps appear to have narrowed over the past two decades, significant changes will be needed before minimum age of marriage legislation achieves gender parity. The practice of child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18, is deeply gendered. UNICEF (2014) estimates that girls are almost five times more likely to be married than boys before the age of 18.
In some countries, gender inequality is much greater: 77 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 in Niger were married 18 years ago, compared to only 5 per cent of men in the same age group. Disproportionately high rates of child marriage among girls are not unique to countries with high prevalence rates. In the Republic of Moldova, where child marriage is much less common, the ratio of women aged 20-49 married before 18 is 15% compared to 2% compared to men. UNICEF (2014) estimates that of the world`s current population, 720 million women were married before the age of 18. More than a third of these women, or about 250 million, were married before the age of 15 (UNICEF 2014). According to global estimates, nearly five million girls under the age of 15 are married each year (Vogelstein 2013).