Latvia

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

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 Latvia, but available information suggests it is exacerbated by:

Trafficking: Latvia has been reported as an origin country for trafficked young women from vulnerable backgrounds who are married off in convenient “sham” marriages. This involves either voluntary or forced marriage to a third country national outside Latvia for the purpose of obtaining a residence permit in the European Union. However, there is no available data on to what extent this form of trafficking involves underage girls.

Latvia 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 2022 High Level Political Forum; however, there was no mention of child marriage.

Latvia 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, 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. In 2014, Latvia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Latvia co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Latvia acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, 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 1992, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

Latvia has signed, but not 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.

In 2021, the CEDAW Committee recommended that Latvia raise the minimum legal age of marriage for men and women to 18 with no exceptions.

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

In the last few years, Latvia has been working with EU authorities and other Member States to prevent and tackle sham marriages in the European Union.

Previously, in 2011, the government implemented an awareness-raising campaign to inform the public about the risks of becoming involved in “convenience” marriages.

According to Civillikums 1992 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years.

However, an individual can be married at 16 years under two conditions: (1) with parental/guardian consent and (2) the person they marry has reached the age of majority, 18 years old. If a parent/guardian refuses to give their consent, then consent may be given by the court, for example with regards to orphans.