In June 2018, the New Jersey Child Marriage Prohibition Act was signed into law by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and immediately went into effect to introduce a clear minimum age of 18 without exception. This makes New Jersey the second state, after Delaware, to ban child marriage altogether. [98] And there are other consequences. Child brides are more likely to become pregnant before their bodies are mature, increasing the risk of death and morbidity in mothers and newborns. In developing countries, nine out of 10 adolescent births occur in marriage or union. In these countries, where access to sexual and reproductive health services is generally low, complications of pregnancy and childbirth can be fatal. In fact, these complications are the leading cause of death among adolescent girls worldwide. Unchained At Last, an organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the United States, found marriage licenses for 232,474 children between 2000 and 2018. [29] Based on the correlation between population and incidence of child marriage, they estimated that the actual number of child marriages in the US during this period was closer to 300,000. [29] [13] In some cases, children are as young as five when they are married, although this is rare. The very newlyweds sometimes marry only in ceremonies, but live with their own parents until adolescence. Since then, publications on child marriage, especially for girls and health-related, have grown exponentially.
In 2019 alone, there were 47 publications in PubMed, a 25% increase from the previous year (see Figure 1). This increase in scientific research has been accompanied by global momentum over the past decade, including: the creation of the high-profile Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage, the first United Nations International Day of the Girl Child with a call against child marriage, and the inclusion of child marriage indicators for monitoring in the draft 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In July 2019, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution A/HRC/RES/41/8 on child, early and forced marriage, expressing concern about impunity and lack of accountability. It requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to hold two regional meetings on child, early and forced marriage, as well as measures to ensure accountability at the local and national levels. The results of these workshops will feed into a report on this issue to be presented to the Human Rights Council at its fiftieth session (June/July 2022). Nguyen M, Wodon Q. Measuring child marriage. Econ Bull. 2012;32(1):398-411.
10 million more girls at risk of child marriage due to COVID-19 It is sometimes referred to as “child, early and forced marriage”. This gives the impression that these terms are different. In fact, they overlap. Child marriage and early marriage refer to much of the same thing: marriages in which one or both spouses are under the age of 18. However, early marriage is also sometimes used to describe marriages in which one or both spouses are 18 years of age or older, but have reduced capacity to give consent. For example, the marriage of a 19-year-old girl who is not physically or emotionally mature or who does not have enough information about her choices would be considered an early marriage. Addressing child marriage requires recognition of the factors that make this possible. Although the roots of the practice vary from country and culture to culture, poverty persists, lack of educational opportunities and limited access to health care. Some families marry off their daughters to reduce their economic burden or earn an income. Others may do so because they believe it will secure or protect their daughters` future. Today, more than 650 million women worldwide were married as children. Every year, at least 12 million girls are married before the age of 18.
That`s 28 girls per minute. One in five girls is married or in contact before the age of 18. In the least developed countries, this figure doubles: 40 per cent of girls are married before the age of 18 and 12 per cent of girls are married before the age of 15. This practice is particularly prevalent in countries in conflict and humanitarian agencies (source: UNICEF). State age of consent laws and age of marriage laws are incompatible with each other. In some states, it is possible for minors to marry legally, even if they have not reached the age of consent in that state. Between 2000 and 2015, at least 200,000 minors were legally married in the United States. 86% of these marriages took place between this minor and an adult. About 5% of minors were 15 years of age or younger, meaning they would not have reached the age of consent in all U.S. territories. [32] Development involves a child reaching biological, cognitive, psychological and social stages over time [45]. At different ages, children are expected to crawl, then walk, talk and express themselves; dealing with increasingly complex forms of information; and develop relationships with others.
Children are not expected to behave as maturely as their adult counterparts or to clearly affirm and describe their own identity, which is shaped over time as the brain evolves and individuals interact with their context [46, 47]. Psychological theorists, including Sigmund Freud (founder of psychoanalysis and psychosexual development theory), Erik Erikson (founder of psychosocial development theory), and Jean Piaget (founder of cognitive development theory), have written extensively on child development in various fields [46, 48, 49]. Their different perspectives contribute to the position that childhood is a fluid construct that develops early in an individual`s life. Child marriage is a marriage in which one or both spouses are under the age of 18. Although this definition sounds simple, the realities of child marriage can be complicated. The words “child” and “marriage” are sometimes interpreted differently. The High Commissioner focused his June 2019 report, submitted to the Human Rights Council A/HRC/41/19, on the issue of child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian institutions. For more information, see the report page.