Rwanda

7% of girls in Rwanda are married before their 18th birthday.

1% of boys in Rwanda are married before their 18th birthday.

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 Rwanda, but available studies suggest that is exacerbated by:

Rurality: Evidence suggests that child marriage is more common rural areas rather than urban areas.
Traditional attitudes: As reported by Action Aid, many people in Rwanda still condone child marriage and violence against women and girls. Additionally, norms around sexuality mean that girls are deterred from seeking contraceptive services. As a result, the majority of girls in Rwanda do not use contraception.
Sexual violence: According to Action Aid, nearly half of all women and girls in Rwanda have experience sexual violence by their 19th birthday. Some girls also engage in transactional sex and exploitative relations with older men (“sugar daddies”) to access money. Sexual violence and unplanned pregnancies can put girls at a increased risk of being married off early.

Displacement: Anecdotal evidence suggests that child marriage is practised in refugee camps.

Rwanda has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. During its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum, Rwanda reported progress on this target.

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

Rwanda co-sponsored the 2013, 2014 and 2016 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Rwanda ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2015 Universal Periodic Review, Rwanda did not support recommendations to effectively enforce existing legislation in order to prevent and prohibit child marriage.

In 2001 Rwanda ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage.

In 2004 Rwanda ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

In 2015 Rwanda signed the Kigali Declaration, which sets out a comprehensive framework for national human rights institutions to strengthen efforts to prevent and eliminate child marriage.

Rwanda is one of the countries where the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/DREAMS Initiative is working to reduce rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women.

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

Following peace and reconstruction efforts after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is consistently ranked as the top Sub-Saharan African country in closing gender gaps due to its high female labour force and female political participation. While this is a positive step towards greater protection of women and girl’s rights, there is no information available about the measures the Rwandan government is taking to address child marriage.

In 2015, the Commonwealth National Human Rights Institutions agreed a new Declaration, the Kigali Declaration, to prevent and end child marriage, after a two-day working session in Kigali, Rwanda.

Following amendments in 2016, under the Law No. 32/2016 governing natural persons and family the minimum legal age of marriage is 21 years, without exceptions.