Saudi Arabia

There is no publicly available government data on child marriage in Saudi Arabia.

Child marriages are reportedly more common among Syrian, Egyptian and Yemeni girls living in the country.

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 Saudi Arabia, but available studies show that it is driven by:

● Poverty: Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council has highlighted the complex relationship between poverty and child marriage, referring to it as a “vicious cycle”.

● Harmful practices: According to some senior religious leaders, girls as young as 10 can marry. Families sometimes arrange marriages to settle family debts without the consent of girls.

● Trafficking: Some Saudi citizens reportedly travel abroad to engage in “summer” or “temporary marriages” which include payment for short-term sexual access to children. In 2016, the Jordanian government reported a case in which a Syrian girl was forced by her father into a temporary marriage for six months with a Saudi Arabian national. In the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, there were 470 potential reported cases of trafficking, including 11 sex trafficking cases and 138 ‘slavery-like’ trafficking.

Saudi Arabia 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 2018 and 2023 High-Level Political Forums, however, there was no mention of child marriage.

Saudi Arabia acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1996, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2000, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage. However, Saudi Arabia has a general reservation to CEDAW, which states that in the case of any contradiction between any term of the Convention and the norms of Islamic law, Saudi Arabia is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention.

In 2018, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns about the persistence of child and forced marriage in Saudi Arabia. The Committee recommended Saudi Arabia to take measures to eliminate the practice, especially in rural and remote areas, and prescribe and enforce a legal minimum age of marriage of 18 years for both women and men.

During its 2024 Universal Periodic Review, it was noted that under the Personal Status Act, the legal minimum age of marriage is 18, without any exceptions, and the courts do not approve any marriages of persons under the age of 18 years.

During its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, Saudi Arabia agreed to examine recommendations to intensify efforts to prevent and combat child, early and forced marriages.

During its 2013 Universal Periodic Review, Saudi Arabia agreed to examine recommendations to ban child marriage, introduce a legal minimum age of marriage and implement a law prohibiting all forms of child marriage.

In December 2019, the Ministry of Justice issued an order to the courts that any marriage application from someone under the age of 18 would have to be referred to a special court to make sure that the marriage “will not harm them and will achieve their best interest, whether they are male or female”.

The order comes after an amendment to the Child Protection Law passed by the Shura Council – a 150-member advisory body that does not have legislative powers but proposes laws to the King and the cabinet – in January 2019. It sought to ban child marriages under 15 entirely and establish new rules for those between 16-18 years old.

Previously, in 2017, the Shura Council had stated that no girl below the age of 15 should be permitted to get married, regardless of the circumstances. It also said that the marriage of girls aged between 15 and 18 requires the approval of her and her mother and a medical report testifying the girl is physically, psychologically, and socially fit for marriage. The other two conditions are that the age of the groom should not be more than double that of the bride and that the marriage contract should be drafted by expert judges.

The Shura also highlighted that child marriages negatively impact the health of girls, leading to increased rates of abortion, premature births and neonatal mortality.

In February 2021, the Ministry of Justice announced that an amendment would be made to the Personal Status Law to raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 for both boys and girls. Local media reports highlight that several conditions must be met in order to approve a marriage contract for boys and girls below the age of 18 such as a psychosocial development assessment and heard statements to confirm consent. Applications for a marriage license must record the bride's age and in order to consummate the marriage, legal registration is necessary. Prior to the amendment, there was no minimum legal age of marriage in Saudi Arabia.