Brunei

There is no publicly available government data on child marriage in Brunei Darussalam.

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 Brunei Darussalam.

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

The government submitted Voluntary National Review at the 2023 High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

Brunei Darussalam acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, 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 2006, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage. However, the government expressed a reservation to CEDAW, regarding those provisions which conflict with its Constitution and the beliefs and principles of Islam.

During its 2014 review, the CEDAW Committee expressed deep concern about the high prevalence of harmful practices that discriminate against women, including child marriage, and about the minimum age of marriage in Brunei: 14 under customary law, 15 for ethnic Chinese, and 16 years for Muslim girls. It urged the government to review and amend legislation and set the minimum age of marriage to 18 for both girls and boys, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.

During its 2016 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed identical concerns about child marriage in Brunei.

During its 2014 and 2019 Universal Periodic Reviews, Brunei Darussalam agreed to examine recommendations in due course to raise the minimum age of marriage for women.

Brunei Darussalam has committed to the ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Violence against Children (2013), which acknowledges the importance of strengthening ASEAN efforts to protect children from all forms of violence, including child marriage.

There is conflicting information on the minimum legal age in Brunei and it varies across provinces, ethnic groups and religious groups:

UnderBrunei’s Marriage Act, which applies to non-Muslims, thelegal minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls is 14 years with parental and participant consent.

Under the Chinese Marriage Act, the minimum legal age of marriage is 15 for girls, with no minimum age for boys.

According to the CEDAW Committee, the minimum age of marriage for Muslims is 16 years for girls and 18 years for boys.