Bhutan

26% of girls in Bhutan marry before the age of 18 and 6% marry before their 15th birthday.

Child marriage is most prevalent in Samdrup Jongkhar (where 44% of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18), Dagana (43%), Sarpang (40%) and Mongar (37%).

Precise figures on child marriage in Bhutan are difficult to determine since many marriages are not officially registered.

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

In Bhutan, child marriage is also driven by:

● Poverty: 38% of women in Bhutan’s poorest households were married before the age of 18, compared to 21% from the richest households. Husbands in Bhutan sometimes move into the home of their wife’s family and this can be an economic incentive for families to marry their daughters at younger ages, since the new husband will be able to contribute to the family’s income.

● Level of education: 37% of women with no education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 8% who had completed secondary education.

● Harmful practices: The UN has reported that the practice of sergemathang/khotkin (marriages between cousins and in-laws) is still common in the eastern part of the country and has warned that this could contribute to child marriage.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Early marriage has increased the adolescent pregnancy rates in Bhutan. Between 2015-2020, 15% of girls in Bhutan gave birth before the age of 18.

Bhutan has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2021.

The government submitted a 2021 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage. However, it noted that a gender-based violence pilot programme based in Thimphu for the Babesa community is being implemented. This programme will work with 155 adolescents and 60 caregivers and aims to influence social practices and behaviours in order to prevent violence. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gender and Child Protection Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan has been implemented. This response plan provides guidance and support to women and children who are victims of violence during the pandemic.

Bhutan co-sponsored the 2022 UN General Assembly resolution on child, early and forced marriage.

Bhutan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2023 review, the CEDAW Committee expressed with concern that the minimum legal age of marriage remains at 16 years for girls under the Marriage Act. The Committee recommended that the government raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 for both men and women, with no exceptions.

During its 2017 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the government revise the 1980 Marriage Act to ensure the minimum age of marriage for girls is 18, and to take all necessary measures to eliminate child marriage. It also urged Bhutan to increase awareness on the harmful effects of child marriage on the physical and mental wellbeing of girls, particularly targeting parents, teachers, health professionals, local authorities, judges and religious leaders.

In 2016, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns about the persistence of child marriage in the eastern region of Bhutan and recommended the government to intensify efforts aimed at raising awareness in order to end early and child marriage.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Bhutan supported recommendations to strengthen the efforts to prevent and end child marriage, and to define child marriage as an offence in the Criminal Code.

Bhutan is a member of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage from 2015-2018.

Representatives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Bhutan, asserted the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia in 2014. As part of its commitment, Bhutan will ensure access to legal remedies for child brides and establish a uniform minimum legal age of marriage of 18.

Bhutan is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

In recent years, Bhutan have launched some initiatives on adolescent health, including adolescent sexual and reproductive health, which include provisions towards ending child marriage. For example, the government initiated the Youth Friendly Health Services (2013–2018) to increase youth access to health services, where a secondary objective was to prevent early marriage by providing girls with better information and services on reproductive health and raising awareness in the communities.

At the local level, in 2018, 20 communities, with the support of UNFPA, made public declarations to eliminate harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage.

Under the Marriage Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan 2017, 18 years is the legal age of marriage for girls and boys with no exceptions.