Child Marriage

The marriage or informal union of a person under the age of eighteen, a practice UNICEF and other international bodies have documented as disproportionately affecting girls and as strongly correlated with reduced educational attainment, a higher rate of early pregnancy and associated childbirth health risk, and increased vulnerability to domestic violence. A number of countries have raised their legal minimum marriage age to eighteen without exception in recent decades, and organizations including the Girls Not Brides partnership have coordinated an international campaign against the practice. Child marriage is distinguished in law and policy from forced marriage in that a child marriage may occur with the ostensible agreement of the minor or their guardian, while forced marriage centers on the absence of free and full consent by at least one party regardless of age; the two frequently overlap in practice, since international human rights standards broadly treat a minor as incapable of giving full, free consent to marriage.