Maldives

2% of girls in the Maldives are married before the age of 18.

2% of boys in the Maldives are married before the age of 18.

According to UNICEF, the Maldives has the lowest rate of child marriage in South Asia. However, child marriage may be increasing in certain islands, namely Hulhumalé (with a 16% increase between 2015 and 2016), possibly due to the rise of a conservative form of Islam.

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

In the Maldives, child marriage is exacerbated by:

Religion: Studies suggest that a conservative form of Islam is on the rise, which is influencing the roles of women and girls in Maldives. Families are reducing the mobility of girls and pulling them out of school. Hence, child marriage is reportedly more common in communities following Sharia law, which allows girls to marry at the age of 15.

Family honour:Some communities in the Maldives disapprove of sexual activity outside of marriage and some young girls are married off in order to avoid bringing disgrace to their families.

Level of education:Schooling is not compulsory in the Maldives, which places some young girls at risk of dropping out of school early to marry. The median age of marriage of women with no education is 16.7 years, while women with further education marry six years later.

Poverty: Financial challenges encourage some families to marry off daughters to reduce their perceived economic burden. Wealthier girls wait an average of three years longer to marry than poorer girls in the Maldives. The perception of limited employment prospects for young women could also be a reason underlying child marriage.

The Maldives has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a 2017Voluntary National Review but there was no mention of child marriage. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political forum to date.

The Maldives co-sponsored the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights.

The Maldives also co-sponsored the 2013 and 2014 UN General Assembly resolutions, and the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution, on child, early and forced marriage. In 2014 the Maldives signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

The Maldives ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993, with general reservations regarding any provisions contradictory to the government’s interpretation of Sharia law or Maldivian tradition.

During its 2020 Universal Periodic Review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the government to end all harmful practices against children and ensure that the minimum legal age of marriage is set at 18 years old.

In 2015, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns, among others, about the existence of legal exceptions to the minimum age of marriage of 18 years and about the high number of unregistered marriages in rural and remote areas, including child marriages.

In 2016, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed similar concerns about child marriage as a harmful practice and the legal exceptions to the minimum age of marriage.

During its 2015 Universal Periodic Review, the Maldives supported recommendations to incorporate provisions to counter child marriage in the draft child protection act and strengthen efforts to eliminate out-of-court and child marriages.

The Maldives is a member of the South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), which adopted a regional action plan to end child marriage from 2015 – 2018.

Representatives of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including the Maldives, asserted the Kathmandu Call to Action to End Child Marriage in Asia in 2014. As part of its commitment, the Maldives will ensure access to legal remedies for child brides and establish a uniform minimum legal age of marriage of 18.

The Maldives took part in the South Asia Parliamentarians’ Meeting “Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage” in 2016.

Maldives is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

In 2020, the Child Rights Protection Act (CRPA) came into force. This Act was ratified November 20, 2019 and marks a significant change in the legal protection of children in the Maldives, such as prohibiting marriage below the age of 18. The Child Rights Council established a Children’s Ombudsperson in order to ensure that children’s rights are upheld in the Maldives.

In the Maldives, the legal age of marriage is 18 with exceptions.

Under the Family Act 2000 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years.

However, in accordance with Islamic Sharia law, individuals who have reached puberty can marry before 18 years with the permission of the Registrar of Marriages.