Macedonia

8% of girls in North Macedonia marry before age 18

According to local NGOs, the prevalence rate of child marriage could be up to three times higher due to the lack of registration of marriages.

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

In North Macedonia, child marriage is also driven by:

Ethnicity: 45% of Romani girls aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18 and 16% before the age of 15. Patriarchal attitudes among Roma communities place high value on family honour and preserving a girl’s virginity, which drives child marriage. Some Roma girls are married to men who work abroad in Western countries, led by a belief that this will offer better opportunities in life.

Level of education: 39.3% of women aged 20-24 with primary education or lower were married before the age of 18 , compared to 11.8% who had completed secondary education. Some families believe that a girl’s place is at home, and therefore remove them from school in order to prepare them for marriage.

Poverty: 21.8% of women aged 20-24 living in North Macedonia’s poorest households were married before the age of 18.

North Macedonia has committed to ending 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 2020. The government submitted a 2020 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum. It was raised that early marriage, especially informal unions, are on the rise.

North Macedonia co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights, the 2017 resolution 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. North Macedonia signed a joint statement at the 2014 Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

North Macedonia succeeded to 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 succeeded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1994, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2018, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns about the persistence of child and forced marriages, despite legislation, and urged North Macedonia to adopt a plan to identify, rescue and protect victims of child and/or forced cohabitation or marriage. During its 2013 review, the CEDAW Committee urged the government to raise awareness of the harmful impact of child marriage among Roma and Albanian communities, effectively investigate and prosecute cases of child marriage, and adopt measures to register all marriages taking place.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, North Macedonia agreed to review recommendations to strengthen efforts to protect the rights of children and prevent child, early and forced marriage.

North Macedonia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating 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.

North Macedonia is a pathfinding country of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.

Since 2020, the government have been undertaking a few major reforms, including key policy frameworks, such as the National Plan to Operationalise the Istanbul Convention, which aims to prevent domestic violence and violence against women, including rape, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation; and the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2018-2020, which aims to prevent gender inequality and discriminatory practices.

The government has demonstrated efforts to protect children through the recent National Strategy for the Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence 2020-2025 and the Action Plan to Reduce any form of Violence Against Children 2020-2022.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy adopted the National Action Plan on Roma Women within the Roma Strategy of the Republic of Macedonia 2014-2020. This strategy is aimed at reducing the prevalence of child marriage and cohabitation within the Roma community.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, the government of North Macedonia committed to reducing child marriages to zero by 2030, through several policy and legal initiatives including:

Harmonising the Family Law to the Criminal Code in order to explicitly ensure that the minimum age is 18 for a person to live in all forms of marital community.

Developing a Protocol for coordinated action of all relevant Ministries on prevention, education, identification and sanction of child marriages.

Implementing awareness-raising campaigns to sensitise the public in collaboration with CSOs.

Implementing training for service providers.

Creating an official database on the number of child marriages.

According to Article 16 the Law on Family 2004 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. However a 16 year old may be granted the courts permission to marry if it is found that they have the mental and physical maturity. This information is to be obtained from a health institution and assessed by the Centre for Social Work.