Czech Republic

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

According to data collected by the Czech Statistical Office, in 2018 there was 13 cases of girls being married at 17 or below, decreasing from almost 2000 cases 30 years ago.

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

There is limited information on child marriage in Czechia, but available studies show that it is largely driven by:

Ethnicity: There is evidence of members of the Romani community in Czechia being married off before the legal age of 18. A 2014 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) shows that around 2% of Roma girls aged 10-15 are traditionally married or cohabiting with a partner across 11 European Union member states, including Czechia. 16% of Roma boys and girls aged 16-17 are legally or traditionally married or cohabiting across the 11 states.

Trafficking: According to a 2016 report by Europol, some girls and young women from Czechia are victims of human trafficking within the European Union for the purpose of forced and fraudulent marriage.

Czechia has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government did not provide an update on progress towards this target during its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum.

Czechia co-sponsored the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution 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, Czechia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Czechia co-sponsored the 2013, 2014 and 2018 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and

Czechia deposited the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, which sets 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.

The legal minimum age of marriage is 18 years. 

However, according to the Family Law 2012 the court may allow the marriage of a person aged 16-18 years if it is for “serious reasons”.