Comoros

21% of girls in Comoros marry before the age of 18 and 5% marry before the age of 15.

7% of Comorian boys marry before the age of 18.

The highest rates of child marriage for girls between the ages of 15-19 are found in Mwali (8.5%), Ndzuwani (8.6%), Ngazidja (17.9%), Moroni (16.4%).

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 Comoros.

In the Comoros, child marriage is driven by:

Level of education: For girls between the ages of 15-19 years, 22% have no education, 31.6% have completed primary education, 10.5% have completed secondary education and 10.7% have completed higher education.

Comoros 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 2023 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government raised that child marriage rates have been declining, with 4.9% of women between the ages of 20-24 years married before the age of 15. In 2012, 10% of girls between 20-24 years were married before the age of 15 and 31.6% married before the age of 18.

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

Comoros ratified 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 acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1994, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

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

During its 2012 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about gender norms in Comoros which limit the role of women and girls to wives, daughters, sisters and nieces. It noted that such negative stereotypes prevent women from enjoying their rights, and expressed concern about the persistence of entrenched harmful practices, including child marriage.

During its 2014 Universal Periodic Review, Comoros supported recommendations to reform women’s rights, particularly in relation to forced and underage marriage. During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Comoros supported recommendations to strengthen measures aimed at addressing violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices, in particular child, early and forced marriages.

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

In 2017, UNICEF contributed to the development of an action plan on child marriage, budget included; however there is no information on the launch of this action plan.

UNICEF has worked with support from the Korea International Cooperation Agency on the socio-economic reintegration of girls who were victims of violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. 66 girls were supported to return to general education, learn a trade, or pursue higher education.

According to the Family Code 2005, 18 years is the legal minimum age of marriage. However, children can marry before the age of 18 with judicial consent.

There are no public measures to generate social support for the enforcement of laws on the minimum age of marriage and there are no legal sanctions for those facilitating a marriage of an individual who is under the minimum age of marriage. The Penal Code includes sanctions for anyone engaged in a marriage celebrated according to customary law who attempts or consummates the marriage with a child below the age of 13 years old (Penal Code, art. 299).