Fiji

4% of Fijian girls marry before the age of 18 and 0.2% of girls marry before the age of 15.

1.7% of Fijian boys marry before the age of 18.

Child marriage is most prevalent in Eastern (6.8%), Central (4.8%), Northern (3.6%) and Western (3.1%).

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

While there is limited information on child marriage in Fiji, evidence suggests that child marriage is also driven by:

Harmful practices: Arranged marriages are particularly common in Indo-Fijian communities, such as in iTaukei village. In some communities, girls who become pregnant before they are 18 years of age frequently live as “common-law wives” with the father of the child after the men satisfy their obligations to present a traditional form of apology called bulubulu. However, due to awareness raising efforts, the practice is no longer as widely accepted.

Poverty: Some families reportedly marry their daughters as they perceive them to be a financial burden or want to offer them a better life, particularly if they marry a foreigner. Some girls self-initiate marriages in order to benefit their whole family or to escape parental neglect. In Fiji, 4.4% of girls from the poorest households were married before the age of 18, in comparison to 3.9% from the wealthiest households.

Exploitation: Newspapers in Fiji reportedly carry advertisements from men outside the country who seek young Indo-Fijian women and girls for marriage. Young girls who marry these men often go onto work for their families and are then abused by them. If they are abandoned or escape the marriage and return home, they are often shunned by their families due to the stigma and may fall victim to sexual exploitation.

Fiji 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; however, there was no mention of child marriage.

Fiji co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. Fiji also co-sponsored the 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Fiji 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 1995, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2014, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed deep concerns about the prevalence of arranged marriages of girls of 15 years of age, particularly in Indo-Fijian communities, and the practice of selling girls into marriage.

During its 2018 review, the CEDAW Committee recommended that Fiji fully enforce the prohibition of all forms of child marriage and increase efforts to prosecute and punish perpetrators and accomplices.

The Spotlight Initiative's Pacific Regional Programme was launched in October 2020 in Fiji. This initiative focuses on 16 countries in the Pacific region and aims to focus on addressing intimate partner violence, domestic violence, early marriage and sexual harassment. This initiative is coordinated by the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Fiji, alongside UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, IOM and UNDP.

The minimum legal age of marriage in Fiji is 18 years old for girls and boys as per the Marriage (Amendment) Regulations 2009

The Marriage (Amendment) Regulations 2009 also repealed minors’ ability to marry with parental consent.