Burundi

19% of girls in Burundi marry or enter a union before the age of 18 and 3% marry before the age of 15.

1% of boys in Burundi marry before the age of 18.

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

In Burundi, child marriage is exacerbated by:

● Gender norms: Some girls are referred to as umukobwa, which means “intended for bride price”. Due to a common belief that a girl’s main purpose in life is to marry, many families see little point in investing in their daughter’s education. For the few years that girls do live with their parents, they are expected to take on household chores to prepare for their future role as wives. Burundian girls cannot inherit property and have few options to earn income and support themselves. Therefore many feel pressured to marry early so they have support and respect within society.

● Political alliances and corruption: According to the Burundian Human Rights League, some influential people force parents to marry off their daughters in exchange for financial or political advantage.

● Violence against girls: Sometimes girls who have been raped are forced to marry their attacker as a result of settlements negotiated by families outside of the formal legal framework. In some regions of Burundi, young girls are kidnapped and abused by young boys who have previously been “rejected”. In such cases, the girl’s rape brings shame to her family and it is sometimes considered better to negotiate a settlement for marriage as moral restitution.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during, and after natural disasters, conflicts, and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis contexts, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope with greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.

In the case of Burundi, following an attempted coup d’état in 2015, thousands of Burundians fled to the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While the humanitarian situation in Burundi has stabilised since 2017, it remains fragile. As of 2022, there are 1.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

● Conflict: Burundi’s civil war (1993-2005) and the 2015 outbreak of violence significantly increased poverty and insecurity in Burundi. This was coupled with flooding, droughts and landslides, all of which damaged the livelihoods of many communities. When Burundian refugees started to be repatriated from Tanzania in 2002, more pressure was placed on depleted resources. This may have created long-lasting enabling conditions for child marriage, both as a means of survival and of stability. In addition, there is recent anecdotal evidence of child marriage happening in Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania.

Burundi 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 a Voluntary National Review at the 2020 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government noted that 1 in 5 women between the ages of 15-24 are illiterate, and some of the challenges to gender-sensitive education include adolescent pregnancy and child marriage.

Burundi co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and signed a joint statement at the 2014 Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Burundi 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 1992, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage

In 2016 the CEDAW Committee expressed concern that its recommendations to revise the Personal and Family Code to standardise the age of marriage for everyone had still not been implemented by Burundi.

Ahead of Burundi’s 2018 Universal Periodic Review, the Human Rights Committee recommended that the government amend the Personal and Family Code so that the minimum age of marriage for men and women is equal and in accordance with international standards. Burundi agreed to examine recommendations to adopt effective measures and repeal legal provisions that discriminate against women, including practices such as child marriage.

In 2004 Burundi ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage. In 2003 Burundi ratified the Protocol to 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.

Burundi is one of 20 countries which committed to ending child marriage by the end of 2020 under the Ministerial Commitment on comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents and young people in Eastern and Southern Africa.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, the Burundi National Assembly committed to tackle early marriages in the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also committed to end sexual and gender-based violence by strengthening the legal framework and judicial services, and promoting socio-economic recovery initiatives for women and girls.

Burundi is one of the countries where the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/DREAMS Initiative is working to reduce rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women.

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

In September 2019, at an event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the First Lady of Burundi, Denise Bucumi Nkurunziza, publicly called on parliamentarians, the media and parents to do their part in preventing and ending early marriage and gender-based violence.

Under the Code des Personnes et de la Famille 1993, the legal age of marriage is 21 years for boys and 18 years for girls. However, they may marry below 18 years with a waiver from the provincial governor and with parental consent.