Samoa

7% of girls in Samoa marry before the age of 18 and 1% marry before the age of 15.

2% of boys in Samoa marry before the age of 18.

Child marriage is most prevalent in the Savaii region (10%), North West Upolu (8%), in the rest of Upolu (8%), and in Apia Urban Area (5%).

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 Samoa, but available studies show that it is exacerbated by:

Level of education: Child marriage prevalence decreases with higher education levels in Samoa. Among child brides aged 20-24, 14% had only completed secondary school in comparison to just 0.3% who completed higher education.

Poverty: 14% of women between the ages of 20-24 who were married before the age of 18 are from Samoa’s poorest households and 1% from the richest households.

Religion: Child marriage is most prevalent among women from the Assembly of God.

Samoa 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. It mentioned that the legal minimum age of marriage is 19 for girls and 21 for boys but a girl can marry at 16 and a boy at 18 years with parental consent. It also highlighted that the median age of marriage in Samoa is 23 for women and 27 for men.

The government is due to submit a Voluntary National Review at the 2024 High Level Political Forum.

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

Samoa ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, 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 1992, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern at the high prevalence rates of child marriage with parental consent and recommended that the government address the root causes of child marriage and raise awareness on eliminating negative attitudes surrounding early marriage, adolescent pregnancies and having children out of wedlock.

During its 2016 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child raised concerns that the Marriage Ordinance Act 1961 sets the minimum age of marriage for girls at 16, and that exceptions are allowed for them to marry even younger at times.

In 2018, the CEDAW Committee recommended Samoa to expedite the amendment to the Marriage Ordinance, 1961, to raise the minimum age of marriage for women to 18 years, and address the root causes of early marriage, including through awareness-raising programmes targeting both men and women.

Samoa is a participant country of the Spotlight Initiative, a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and United Nations supporting partners and institutions to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.

Samoa is a pathfinding country of the Global Partnership Education.

Regionally, the Spotlight Pacific Regional Initiative builds on existing commitments across 16 Pacific Island countries, including Samoa. In Samoa, this initiative aims to:

Support the revision of six family laws, including laws around marginalised women and girls’ rights, domestic violence, and violence against women and girls.

Strengthen capacity of women's rights advocates, government ministries and parliamentarians.

Develop a National Family Violence Prevention Strategy in six pilot villages to promote and raise awareness on gender equality, attitudes and behaviours.

Support and strengthen women's groups and civil society organisations in the implementation of laws, budgeting and mapping on sexual and gender-based violence.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Samoa committed to moving towards zero sexual and gender-based violence, including child and early marriage.

The Samoa Law Reform Commission (an advisory body to the Prime Minister and the Attorney General) has previously made recommendations to harmonise the minimum age of marriage for both women and men at 18 years of age.

Following that, in 2018 the government presented two proposals to amend the Marriage Ordinance 1961: first, to equate the minimum age for marriage for men and women at 18 years and second, to require consent from one parent/legal guardian for marriage for both men and women until 21 years. These changes were adopted in 2020 and came into force in 2021.

It was anticipated that the Child Care and Protection Bill 2015 would prohibit child marriage and fill child protection and child justice gaps. However, this bill has not yet been passed.

Under the Consolidated Acts of Samoa 2008 and Marriage Ordinance 1961, as amended by the Immigration Act 2020, s72(1), the minimum legal age of marriage is 21 for both girls and boys.

However, girls and boys can marry at 18 years with parental consent.