Bosnia and Herzegovina

4% of girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina marry before the age of 18.

Child marriage is especially prevalent among Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina: 15% of Roma women in Bosnia and Herzegovina aged 20-49 were married before the age of 15 and 48% of Roma women of the same age were married before 18 years of age. 20% of Roma men in Bosnia and Herzegovina aged 20-49 were married before 18.

Child marriage is most prevalent in Brčko district.

Although experts note that child marriages peaked during the 1990s in Kosovo as a result of the Yugoslav conflict, rates appear to have fallen since the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, child marriage is exacerbated by:

Ethnicity: Evidence indicates that child marriage is particularly prevalent among the Roma community, where arranged marriages, early betrothals and elopement often take place rather than officially registered marriages. Low rates of school enrolment and employment put Romani girls in Bosnia at higher risk of being married off early.

Poverty: 14% of women living in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s poorest households were married before the age of 18, compared to 4% from the richest households. Married Roma children are reportedly subjected to domestic servitude and begging.

Level of education: 24% of women who completed primary education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 5% who completed secondary education.

Trafficking: Bosnia remains a major source and destination of trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. Trafficking for the purposes of marriage and sexual exploitation in prostitution are the most common in Bosnia.

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

The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2023 High-Level Political Forum; however, there was no mention of child marriage.

Bosnia co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. In 2014, Bosnia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Bosnia co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Bosnia and Herzegovina deposited the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, 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 1993, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2019 review, the CEDAW Committee recommended Bosnia to continue to raise awareness among Roma communities about the harmful effects of child and forced marriage.

During its 2013 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about the prevalence of child marriage within Roma communities and the lack of sustained, concrete action taken by the government to address this.

In 2019, in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concluding observation, the Committee recommended Bosnia to amend its family laws at the entity and district levels to remove all exceptions that allow marriage under the age of 18.

In 2019, the Human Rights Committee noted that the practices of arranged marriages and child trafficking amongst Roma children are prevalent within their community.

During its 2014 Universal Periodic Review, Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed to examine recommendations to reduce child marriage, including by addressing significant school drop-out rates among Roma children and prosecuting people found trafficking ethnic girls into marriage.

Bosnia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

Kali Sara, a Roma NGO has implemented the Strategy to Combat Trafficking in Persons 2020-2023, as it has been reported by Romani human rights activists that the child marriage and trafficking rates are prevalent within their community.

Romalen, UNFPA and UNICEF have developed a play to involve communities in discussion around child marriage and its effects. Ruža has been performed in six municipalities with large Roma populations, and local authorities, police officers, social workers and teachers have been encouraged to attend performances.

Under the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Family Law Act, the minimum age of marriage is 18 years for girls and boys. However, an authorised court can, in an out-of-court procedure, after it has deemed that they are mentally and physically fit, allow minors who are at least 16 years old to enter marriage.

The Criminal Courts of the administrative units do not criminalise child marriage but criminalise marriage-like circumstance such as cohabitation with children. The Criminal Codes criminalise cohabitation of an adult with a child below the age of 16 years. However, this prohibition is relaxed where courts deem that a marriage has been concluded between the parties.