Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

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

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 limited information on CEFMU in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 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 2020 Voluntary National Review at the 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 2020.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ratified 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 acceded to 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 2021 review, UNESCO noted that the legal minimum age for marriage was 16 years for boys and 15 years for girls, and recommended that the minimum age be raised to 18 years for both boys and girls.

During its 2017 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child raised serious concerns that the legal age of marriage under the 1926 Marriage Act is 15 for girls and 16 for boys.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines agreed to examine recommendations to raise the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys to be in line with international standards.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 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 respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1996. 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 Vincent and Grenadines, 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.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Under the Marriage Act 2009 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years.

However, girls can marry at 15 years and boys at 16 years with judicial and parental consent.