When it comes to laws governing the legal age of marriage, the United States, France, Ireland and Canada have more in common with developing countries than their Western peers. They are among the two-thirds of nations which do not make child marriage illegal in all circumstances.

Only six countries in the world – Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen – do not specify a minimum age for marriage. A third outlaw it entirely, but the majority allow underage marriage if the girl is pregnant, her parents give consent, a court sanctions it, or it is permitted by her religion or culture.

This means that if a thirteen-year-old girl gets pregnant in Virginia, she could legally marry with a judge's permission. In the US, this is rare – just 3% of girls are married before the age of 18. It’s in countries like Niger, which has a 61% child marriage rate, where the real problem lies. In the developing world, one in three girls is married before her eighteenth birthday.

Girls married before 18 years old (%)

Source: OECD, 2014

“Economic aspects and poverty play a part, but at the core is gender inequality that says, ‘Our daughters are not valuable enough to keep or invest in,” said Helena Minchew of the International Women’s Health Coalition. “If that wasn't the case, why aren't sons married at the same rate?”

Early marriage has devastating effects on girls. It causes physical and psychological harm, perpetuates generational cycles of poverty and abuse, and cuts them off from education and work – which, in turn, hinders progress. Ending child marriage would add more than $4 trillion to the global economy, according to research by the World Bank and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).

Minimum age of marriage, when taking into account all exceptions to the law
In the indicated countries, a girl can marry if she is pregnant, her parents give consent, a court sanctions it, or it is permitted by  her religion or culture.

Source: World Policy Analysis Center, 2015

Child marriage is most prevalent in West and Central Africa and South Asia. Even in the countries that do outlaw the practice, minimum age requirements are often ignored, and it’s common for girls to get married without court approval.

“If there’s a law that exists at a national level and there’s a community law that contradicts it or there’s a loophole – for example, if the legal age is 18 but parents are allowed to give consent below the age of 18 – it simply doesn’t work. Even if a law exists and it’s quite robust, if there is no way to enforce it, we are also seeing problems with taking it forward,” said Anandita Philipose of the UN Population Fund’s West and Central Africa Office.

“That’s why some of the weakest evidence exists around the dimensions that have just targeted law and policy change without looking at some of the broader environmental changes, and without targeting the young girls themselves,” said Philipose. “We need more than laws to solve child marriage.”
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Circumstances under which a 13-year-old girl can marry**

Source: World Policy Analysis Center, 2015

Quick fixes – like legal changes or cash transfers – have proved not enough to tackle the root cause of child marriage: deeply ingrained sexism. Eradicating the practice will require a holistic approach to challenging gender norms.

For example, in Amhara, Ethiopia – the region with the highest rate of child marriage in the country, at 45% – the government and a coalition of NGOs and foundations worked within a village to challenge views on girls and marriage. The project organised mentors and discussion groups for the girls, and gave them school supplies so they could afford to continue their studies. They administrators held both family and community-wide discussions about child marriage, and gave parents goats and sheep in return for keeping their girls in the program. By the end of the first trial, 10- to 14 year-olds in the pilot village were 90% less likely to be married than girls in a comparable control village. The Ethiopian government is currently scaling the program up.

Circumstances under which a 17-year-old girl can marry

Source: World Policy Analysis Center, 2015

In central India, to take another example, the Madhya Pradesh government and the UN are tackling child marriage and other forms of gender-based violence through Courage Brigades: volunteer community groups made up of 10 respected women and men who use social pressure to deter bad behaviour. If an older man wanted to marry an underage girl, the local Brigade could pay him a visit and explain why marrying a young girl is both illegal and harmful. Key to the program’s success is social pressure: if an offender continues his bad behaviour, the group uses its influence to shame him in the village. The Brigades, which now operate across 2,733 communities, give women the lead role in resolving conflict, and offer to do so without involving police, whom many women in rural India distrust.

What these projects show is that all the groups working to end child marriage – governments, the UN, non-profits, NGOs – will need unprecedented collaboration to tackle the crux of the problem: girls’ value in society.

“There are so many different sectors, agencies and departments, but they don’t work together. The point is that they are so siloed that they don’t talk to each other – and they don’t talk to families and girls about their needs and aspirations,” said Ravi Verma, the Regional Director of the ICRW’s Asia Regional Office. “We need to inspire [girls] to do things they want to, rather than treating marriage and having children as the most important part of their lives.”

Disparity between legal age of marriage for girls and boys

Source: World Policy Analysis Center, 2015

(Picture credit: Flickr/DFID - UK Department for International Development)

Jennifer Guay
jennifer.guay@apolitical.co