Estonia

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

Five cases of child marriage were officially registered between 2015 and 2016 in Estonia.

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 Estonia.

Estonia has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government of Estonia submitted a 2020 Voluntary National Review for the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

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

Estonia co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution calling to strengthen efforts to prevent and eliminate 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, Estonia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

Estonia acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1991, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2017 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that Estonia raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 for both boys and girls and take all measures necessary to eliminate child marriage.

Estonia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

While 18 years is the minimum legal age of marriage under the Family Law Act 2010, girls and boys can marry at the age of 15 with permission from the court. This makes Estonia the country with the lowest marriage age in the European Union.

In 2017, Estonia made amendments the Penal Code and other laws to criminalise forced marriage as a form of human trafficking, understanding that it is committed first and foremost against minors. However, the marriageable age remained unchanged.