Nicaragua

35% of girls in Nicaragua marry or enter a union before the age of 18 and 10% marry before the age of 15.

19% of boys in Nicaragua marry or enter a union before the age of 18.

It is common for adolescent girls to enter into unions with adolescent boys of a similar age. Such unions are seen as normal and usually go unreported.

Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Nicaragua, CEFMU is driven by:

● Poverty: Many girls and adolescents are forced into marriages/unions as their families are struggling financially and can receive money in return. Girls and adolescents feel that entering a union young helps to reduce a family’s financial burden.

● Gender norms: Girls and adolescents lack choice and control over decisions about marriage, and have limited confidence to raise concerns with their families or communities.

● Gender-based violence: Some girls and adolescents in Nicaragua consider entering an union to escape from threats of sexual harassment and violence within their homes, in school and in public places. Indigenous, in particular Miskito, adolescents are also exposed to violence, as long-standing practices such as tala mana (blood price) allow offences like rape to be compensated for by the exchange of animals, objects or money, and the promise that the daughter will leave her home and join the aggressor.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Nicaragua has the second highest fertility rate among adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean and nearly 30% of girls and adolescents who entered in an early union became pregnant within the same year. Between 2015-2020, for girls between the ages of 15-19, the adolescent birth rate in Nicaragua was 103 births per 1000 girls and 28% of girls had given birth before the age of 18. A 2019 UNFPA study found a direct and high correlation between pregnancy and early unions among Nicaraguan girls and adolescents.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during and after natural disasters, conflicts, and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurities, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis context, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope in greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence.

Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, and it continues to face socioeconomic crisis as well as political tensions. In response to protests against President Daniel Ortega that began in 2018, the police and paramilitary groups attacked protesters over a 5-day period. These protests left more than 300 people dead, 2,000 injured and more than 1,5000 people arrested. President Ortega faced the largest protests in the government’s history. In 2021, after being reinstated for his fourth term, Ortega shut down over 3,000 national and international organizations which included NGOs, social, religious and political groups.

Additionally, due to its geographical location, Nicaragua faces extreme climate changes and disruptions such as storms and hurricanes.

● Political instability and forced displacement: Political turmoil in Nicaragua since April 2018 has led more than 108,000 Nicaraguans to flee violence and human rights violations, the majority into neighbouring Costa Rica. Although we lack data on the impact of this crisis on CEFMU among Nicaraguan girls and adolescents, evidence from other settings indicates that displacement puts them at an increased risk of CEFMU.

Nicaragua 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 2021 High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since.

Nicaragua co-sponsored the 2013 and 2014 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage.

Nicaragua ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, 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 in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2014 Universal Periodic Review, Nicaragua supported recommendations to ensure that child marriage is addressed promptly by making the minimum age of marriage equal for women and men.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Nicaragua agreed to review recommendations to strengthen efforts to prevent and combat all harmful practices against women and girls, including child, early and forced marriage.

Nicaragua, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls to governments to strengthen the response to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions, from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Nicaragua ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1995. In 2016, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.

Nicaragua, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was also approved by the ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy and gender equality, in the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.

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

A new Family Code in 2014 raised the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 years for girls and boys.

However, legal representatives of girls and boys can give permission for them to marry at 16 or 17 years. If there is a conflict with this, it is resolved through the courts in conjunction with the National Procurator's Office of the Family and the Ministry of Family, Adolescence and Children.