Algeria

4% of girls in Algeria are married before their 18th birthday.

The most recent available data from 2018-19 indicates that child marriage is more common among rural, poor and less educated women.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is very limited information on child marriage in Algeria, but studies indicated that child marriage is exacerbated by:

Gender inequality: The Algerian Family Code, promulgated in 1984, states that girls and women must seek permission for marriage from a father or close relative. It also allows polygamy and states that marriage contracted without payment of a dowry shall be declared void. This reinforces beliefs that women and girls are “property” and are inferior to men.

Algeria has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. During its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the government reported the revision of the 2005 Family Code, by setting the age of marriage to 19 for both men and women and eliminating proxy marriages to ensure the free consent of the spouses. The government has not submitted any Voluntary National Review in any High-Level Political Forum since.

Algeria co-sponsored the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage. In 2014, Algeria also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Algeria co-sponsored the 2014 and 2018 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Algeria ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1996, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2012 the CEDAW Committee raised concerns that rural women in Algeria are affected by child marriage. The Committee recommended that the government implement awareness-raising campaigns to tackle this.

During its 2017 Universal Periodic Review, Algeria agreed to review recommendations to repeal article 326 of the penal code, which allows perpetrators of the rape of minors to escape justice by marrying their victims.

In 2003 Algeria ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage.

In 2017 Algeria ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

Under the Family Code 2005, men and women can marry at 19 years old. However legal loopholes, judicial and parental exceptions mean that there is no specified minimum age of marriage in Algeria.