Child marriage

Subject: Child marriage

According to official data, every year more than 10 million girls under the age of 15 are married or forced to marry men who are twice their age or much older.

At the same time, it is estimated that 115 million boys and men around the world married as children, a fifth of them before the age of 15.

This practice is a flagrant abuse of human rights and can have manifold traumatic consequences for the lives of children, especially girls.

There are still states in the US and dozens of countries around the world where there is no official minimum age for marriage. Thus, children marry with their parents’ consent and these marriages are considered entirely legitimate.

The reasons for child marriage include poverty, the bride’s honour, the dowry, cultural traditions, laws, religious and social pressures, local customs, fear of someone remaining celibate, illiteracy and women being unable to earn their own living.

In view of this:

1. How could the Commission assist in protecting underage children?

2. Underage children subjected to this practice are left psychologically scarred for life. What further measures could the Commission take to protect underage children and what is being done to put an end to this practice?

Submitted:31.5.2023

Answer given by Ms Dalli on behalf of the European Commission

(5 September 2023)

The Commission condemns every form of violence against children. Preventing and fighting violence is one of the six thematic priorities of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child (1).

The Commission proposed (2) to add forced marriage amongst the forms of exploitation criminalised under Directive 2011/36/EU (3). Victims of forced marriage also benefit from the rights granted under the Victims’ Rights Directive 2012/29 (4).

In addition, as forced and child marriage are forms of gender-based violence against women and girls, victims can be supported under the proposed directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence (5).

Furthermore, the Commission plans to adopt a recommendation on preventing and combating harmful practices against women and girls, which will cover forced and child marriage (6).

Finally, the Commission also funds projects tackling forced and child marriage through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme (7).

1 ∙ ⸱ COM/2021/142 final.

2 ∙ ⸱ Proposal for a directive amending Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, COM(2022) 732 final.

3 ∙ ⸱ Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its

victims, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA, OJ L 101, 15.4.2011, p. 1. 4 ∙ ⸱ Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of

victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32012L0029 5 ∙ ⸱ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022PC0105 6 ∙ ⸱ As announced in the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, COM/2020/152 final. 7 ∙ ⸱ https://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/departments-and-executive-agencies/justice-and-consumers/justice-and-consumers-funding-

tenders/funding-programmes/citizens-equality-rights-and-values-programme_en#:~:text=This%20programme%20aims%20to%20protect,regional%2C%20national %20and%20transnational%20level.














| | )The EU is committed to ending harmful practices towards women and girls in its internal and external actions , (8) including forced and child marriage, (9) in line with our commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (10).

The EU continues to raise this issue with partner countries as a part of its political and human rights dialogues to address this harmful practice. A specific action on child early and forced marriage is included in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy (11).

In this regard, the EU contributes to the United Nations Children's Fund/United Nations Population Fund Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage (12).

The EU has also supported the world’s largest targeted effort to end all forms of violence against women and girls through the EU-UN Spotlight initiative (13).

8 ∙ ⸱ A specific action on child early and forced marriage is included in the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, 2020-2025. The EU is furthermore fully

committed to promoting and supporting the realisation of women's and children’s rights in all countries around the world in line with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and their Optional Protocols. 9 ∙ ⸱ The Commission recalls that the child’s best interests must be a primary consideration in all actions relating to children, whether taken by public authorities or private

institutions (Article 24 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child). 10 ∙ ⸱ Specifically UNSDG Target 5.3, which contains the aim to ‘ eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage [...]’ by 2030. 11 ∙ ⸱ EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, 2020-2025 https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/eu-action-plan-human-rights-and-democracy-0_en 12 ∙ ⸱ The Programme is implemented in twelve countries in Africa and Asia. It proposes a comprehensive approach to tackle the issues: starting from adopting protective

legislation to adoption of national action plans by the governments of these countries, from enhancing access to quality education and health services to social norms change, from better data collection to evidence-based programming. The EU has been contributing since 2016. 13 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_19_5873