Greece

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

It is believed that child marriage is prevalent within the Greek Muslim and Roma communities predominantly living in the Thrace region of Greece. However, because these marriages remain unregistered, very limited data exists.

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 Greece, but available studies suggest that is exacerbated by:

Migration: Research suggests that children on the move are more vulnerable to child marriage. In a 2017 UNICEF study revealed that one in five girls interviewed from countries in West Africa and the Horn of Africa who escaped to Greece left because they had experienced or feared forced marriage.

Ethnicity: A 2014 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 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 Greece. 16% of Roma boys and girls aged 16-17 are legally or traditionally married or cohabiting across the 11 states.

Greece 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 at the High Level Political Forum to date.

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

Greece co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 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, Greece also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

Greece ratified 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 1983, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

Greece 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.

At the London Girl Summit in July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.

Reporting to the Child Rights Committee, the government recognised in 2018 that there are women and girls in Greece at risk of certain forms of violence, including early and forced marriages, which require the adoption of specific measures and actions.

The government also reported that the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2016-2020 envisions training and educational campaigns on the effects of early and forced marriages with girls and boys, parents and intercultural mediators, targeting Roma, migrant and refugee communities.

The minimum legal age of marriage under the Greek Civil Code is 18 years. However, individuals younger than 18 years may enter a marriage with consent from a competent court, if there are “significant reasons” for the marriage. However, the Civil Code does not specify what qualifies and therefore a determination is made on a case by case basis.

Greece operates on a dual judicial system whereby the Muslim minority in the Western Thrace region of Greece are allowed to apply Sharia law. Mufti’s are appointed by the Greek state and they have jurisdiction over marriage. In these cases, child marriage is allowed where a girl is pregnant or with parental consent. Under Hanafi law, a girl or boy must reach puberty before they can marry. For girls under the age of 15 they must have parental consent to marry. Hanafi marriages are legally recognised under Greek and Civil law.