Saint Kitts and Nevis

There is no publicly available government data on Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

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.

There is very little information on CEFMU in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 2023 High Level Political Forum. However, there was no mention of child marriage.

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

Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

Saint Kitts and Nevis, 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 on governments to strengthen the response to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions from a perspective that respects evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Saint Kitts and Nevis 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.

Saint Kitts and Nevis, 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 during 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.

Article 28 of the Marriage Act states that where either of the parties, not being a widower or widow is under the age of 18, no marriage shall take place between them until the consent of the persons or person required by this Act has been first obtained.

Additionally, a marriage solemnised between persons either of whom is under the age of sixteen shall be void: Provided however that the Attorney-General or his or her representative may, in his discretion, if, for serious reasons, he or she considers it to be in the interest of the intending spouses so to do, grant a licence to marry to any person under the age of sixteen but over the age of fifteen.