El Salvador

19.7% of girls in El Salvador marry or enter a union before the age of 18 and 4.3% marry before the age of 15.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are most prevalent in the Oriental region (where 25.5% of women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18) and Occidental (20.5%). It occurs most commonly in San Muguel, La Unión departments Sonsonate, La Paz, Usulután and San Vicente departments where over 20% of women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18

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 El Salvador, CEFMU is also driven by:

● Level of education: 52% of women with no education were married or in a union as children, compared to only 3% who had completed university.

● Poverty: 12% of women in El Salvador’s poorest households were married or in a union as children, compared to 2% from the richest households.

● Gender-based violence against girls: UNFPA reports high rates of sexual violence against girls in El Salvador which often results in teenage pregnancy. There have been reports of poor families marrying their daughters to their rapists in order to reduce their financial burden. Plan International and UNFPA also reported that some girls enter into unions or marriages as a way to escape abuse and violence at home.

● Adolescent pregnancy: There are high numbers of minors cohabiting in El Salvador and there were more than 25,000 births by underage mothers in 2015. This likely contributes to decisions around child marriage and early unions.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during, and after natural disasters, conflicts, and epidemics. 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.

El Salvador faces a complex humanitarian crisis driven by multiple interrelated factors which include gang violence, displacement, poverty, food insecurity, gender-based violence and a variety of natural hazards including earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and environmental degradation. Despite the decrease of violence and insecurity in El Salvador since March 2022, there are approximately 1.1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in El Salvador. El Salvador has one of the highest rates of violence in the world.

● Organised crime and forced displacement: In recent years, gang warfare and violence have transformed Central America, including El Salvador, into one of the most dangerous places on earth. Over half a million people, the majority of them women, children and unaccompanied minors, have fled and are seeking asylum in Mexico and the United States. In El Salvador, as of December 2023, there are approximately 66,000 internally displaced people. This kind of humanitarian crisis exacerbates poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive CEFMU. Although we currently lack data on the impact of the Central America refugee crisis on CEFMU, women and girls are at a heightened risk of sexual violence during the migration route and there is evidence of girls being taken or pressured into marrying gang members. In addition, previous experiences in other humanitarian contexts show that violence and forced displacement increase girls’ vulnerability to CEFMU.

El Salvador has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2017.

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum, the government reported a reduction in the prevalence of child marriage between 2008 and 2014.

El Salvador co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 Human Rights Council resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 Human Rights Council resolution on the consequences of child marriage, and the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. El Salvador also co-sponsored the 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

El Salvador 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 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2017 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about the social acceptance of sexual and marital relations of children and teenagers with older men in El Salvador. It recommended the government to implement awareness-raising campaigns on the implications of child marriage on the health and education of girls.

During its 2020 Universal Periodic Review, El Salvador agreed to review recommendations to implement measures aimed at preventing child, early and forced marriages, including by raising public awareness about the negative consequences of early marriage for girls, and prohibit and punish the forced non-matrimonial unions of girls and adolescents.

El Salvador, 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 on governments to strengthen the response to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions, from a perspective that respects evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

In 2018, following a Working Visit to El Salvador, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) welcomed the amendment of the Family Code to remove exceptions that allowed, in practice, the marriage of girls victims of sexual violence to their aggressors. However, the IACHR noted that early unions continue to be common in El Salvador.

El Salvador ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1996. 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.

El Salvador, 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 governments on women’s rights and autonomy and gender equality in 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.

El Salvador is one of the countries where UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women are working together under the Latin America and the Caribbean Joint Programme for a Region Free of Child Marriage and Early Unions (2018-2021) to: align national frameworks with international standards, empower girls, promote policies and services that address the drivers of child marriage and early unions and break the silence nationally and regionally.

El Salvador is one of the countries where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations) is supporting efforts to end all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls.

El Salvador is a pathfinder country for the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.

The National Cross-sectoral Strategy for the Prevention of Pregnancy in Girls and Adolescents (Estrategia Nacional Intersectorial de Prevención del Embarazo en Niñas y en Adolescentes, 2017-2027), highlights the correlation between adolescent pregnancy and child marriage and early unions. The Strategy includes objectives and activities to prevent child marriage and early unions, implement legal reforms, protect and restore the rights of girls in child marriages and early unions, and elaborate an early warning mechanism.

In August 2017, lawmakers voted to make child marriage illegal, with 18 years as the minimum age of marriage with no exceptions. Up until then, the Family Code 1993 had allowed exceptions for marriage before 18 years in cases of pregnancy, enabling perpetrators of sexual violence to escape punishment.

Under the Family Code, the minimum age of marriage is 18 years for women and men with no exceptions.