Costa Rica

17% of girls in Costa Rica are married or in a union before their 18th birthday and 2% are married or in a union before the age of 15.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) rates are highest in Limón and Puntarenas (where 31% of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18), Guanacaste (25%), Alajuela (19%) and San José (15%).

Child marriage is most prevalent in rural areas where 27% of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18 and 17% in urban areas.

CEFMU is most prevalent among indigenous and Afro-Costa Rican communities.

In Costa Rica, CEFMU usually consists of an informal union, in which a girl lives with an older partner.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Costa Rica, CEFMU is also driven by:

Level of education: 47% of women with no education were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to only 22% who had completed secondary education or higher.

Poverty: 37% of women living in Costa Rica’s poorest households were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to only 8% in the richest. CEFMU rates are higher in rural areas, likely due to fewer economic opportunities and limited awareness on the consequences of CEFMU.

Harmful practices: CEFMU is particularly common among indigenous groups, including the Ngabe community where girls are deemed eligible to marry when they reach puberty.

Gender norms: 23% of girls aged 15-19 are married or in a union to men who are more than ten years older than them. Experts note that changing social acceptance and power dynamics surrounding CEFMU takes time.

Costa Rica has committed to eliminate 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 and it was raised that in the Survey of Women, Children and Adolescents 2018, it was found that 2% of women aged 20-24 were married before 15 and 17% before the age of 18.

Costa Rica co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, and the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage. In 2014, Costa Rica also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Costa Rica has signed the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Costa Rica ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1986, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2020, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed the enactment of Act No. 9406 prohibiting marriage under 18 years of age. However, the Committee recommended Costa Rica to strengthen its efforts to raise awareness on the harmful effects of the practice of cohabitation between girls and adult men.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Costa Rica agreed to review recommendations to take measures against child, early and forced marriage.

Costa Rica, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls to governments to strengthen the respond to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Costa Rica ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1995. In 2016, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.

Costa Rica, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was also approved by the ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy, and gender equality, during the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.

The minimum age of marriage in Costa Rica is 18 years.

In January 2017 a new law on “improper relations” (Ley de Relaciones Impropias, Act No. 9406) was adopted, which prohibits civil marriages when a person under the age of 18 is involved. Previously, minors between the ages of 15-18 years could marry with parental permission.