Sierra Leone

30% of girls in Sierra Leone marry or enter a union before age 18 and 9% marry before age 15.

7% of boys in Sierra Leone marry before age 18.

Child marriage is most common in Koinadugu, Tonkolili, Kambia, and Port Loko.

Child marriage is driven by the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys. In Sierra Leone, child marriage is exacerbated by:

● Level of education: Over half of girls in Sierra Leone with no education were married off before the age of 18, compared to 10% of those with higher education. Girls are often seen as “leavers” who will eventually join another family through marriage. Many parents see little value in investing in their education.

● Poverty: Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries. This particularly impacts girls, who face very limited educational and economic opportunities. Some families marry their daughters off to receive dowry payments, reduce their perceived economic burden or offer them what they think will be a better life.

● Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C): 86% of women and girls in Sierra Leone have undergone FGM. This practice is considered a marker of a girl’s readiness for marriage. FGM is a central step in the initiation process to a secret society called Bondo. Bondo is deeply entwined with other harmful practices against women and girls. Sending girls to be initiated into the Bondo Society, and therefore to undergo FGM, is said to help protect a girl’s virginity and ensure they will remain faithful to their husband. The experience of Bondo is regarded as necessary preparation for marriage and families reportedly marry off their daughters after they take part in Bondo.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Child marriage is often seen as the best solution if a girl becomes pregnant, even if it is due to forced sex, as it reduces the embarrassment on her family. In extreme cases, girls who have found “love matches” on their own and have become pregnant have then been forced to marry strangers in order to enter into a “clean” marriage.

Humanitarian settings can encompass a wide range of situations before, during, and after natural disasters, conflicts, and epidemics. They exacerbate poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to services such as education, factors which all drive child marriage. While gender inequality is a root cause of child marriage in both stable and crisis contexts, often in times of crisis, families see child marriage as a way to cope with greater economic hardship and to protect girls from increased violence. In Sierra Leone, child marriage was exacerbated by:

● Epidemics: Sierra Leone was the most affected country by the Ebola virus disease. The outbreak (2014-2016) placed enormous strain on public service provision in Sierra Leone. Closure of schools and a lack of protection for girls created a more enabling environment for child pregnancy, child marriage and sex transactions between young girls and older men as a means of economic survival for families.

● Armed conflict: During Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), approximately a quarter of child soldiers were girls. This turned age and gender norms upside down, which may have indirectly influenced perceptions that a girl is old enough to marry when she reaches puberty.

Sierra Leone has committed to eliminate 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 2021 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government stated that through its National Commission for Social Action to support the girl child, it continues to provide special support for girls offering science, technology, engineering and mathematics, including the First Lady’s “Hands-Off Our Girls” campaign and reduce adolescent pregnancy.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, in December 2018, the government launched the National Strategy for the Reduction of Adolescent Pregnancy and Child marriage.

At the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the government reported its support to the First Lady’s “Hands-Off Our Girls” campaign to end child marriage and reduce teenage pregnancy.

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2016 High Level Political Forum, the government stated that the target falls under “Pillar 8: Gender and Women’s Empowerment” in its Agenda for Prosperity.

The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High-Level Political Forum after 2021.

Sierra Leone has signed the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sierra Leone co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing child marriage. In 2014, Sierra Leone also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Sierra Leone co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Sierra Leone 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 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1988, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged Sierra Leone to take “concrete and consistent measures”, including the harmonisation of laws, to eliminate child marriage, and to conduct awareness-raising on the negative consequences of such.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Sierra Leone agreed to examine recommendations to prohibit harmful practices including child marriage and FGM/C.

In 2002 Sierra Leone ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage.

In 2003 Sierra Leone signed, but has not yet 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 2016 Sierra Leone launched the African Union Campaign to end child marriage in Africa.

As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 2017 Sierra Leone adopted the Strategic Framework for Strengthening National Child Protection Systems under which protecting children from marriage is a priority. In June 2019, the ECOWAS Heads of State endorsed the ECOWAS Child Policy and Strategic Action Plan and the 2019-2030 Roadmap on prevention and response to child marriage.

In addition, in July 2019, the ECOWAS First Ladies signed “The Niamey Declaration: Call to End Child Marriage and to promote the Education and empowerment of Girls”, calling Member States to initiate legislative, institutional and budgetary reforms to implement the Roadmap.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, the Government of Sierra Leone committed to the overall goal of zero Gender Based Violence and harmful practices by 2030, and enact the Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill which will criminalise child marriage for all types of marriages by the end of 2020.

Sierra Leone is a partner developing country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

Sierra Leone is a focus country of the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, a multi-donor, multi-stakeholder programme working across 12 countries over fifteen years.

In 2022, the annual report of the Global Programme to end child marriage:

18,220 adolescent girls that participated in sexual health education.

3.3 million boys and girls were able to access social media messages relating to gender equality, girls’ rights and child marriage.

40,000 boys and girls participated in conversations regarding gender equality and child marriage.

1,155 adolescent girls between the ages of 10-19 years, living in Koinadugu, Pujehun and Kambia districts were supported to enrol or remain in primary and secondary school.

The launch of a Male Advocacy Peer Educator (MAPE) network which engaged men and elders in various communities in Koinadugu, Pujehun and Kambia. The main aim of MAPE is to promote dialogue on topics such as child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, sexual and gender-based violence and positive masculinities.

In 2020 the annual report of the Global Programme to end child marriage established:

57,709 adolescent girls participated in at least one programme aimed at empowering them with information on how to delay child marriage.

8,956 adolescent girls aged 10-19 were supported to enrol and continue their education.

56,336 girls and boys were engaged in dialogues to promote gender-equitable norms including delaying child marriage.

500 religious leaders in the Inter-Religious Council across Sierra Leone made a pledge not to solemnize child marriage.

225 community action plans to end child marriage and adolescent pregnancy are being implemented.

In 2018, as part of the Global Programme, 225 community action plans were implemented across nine districts, engaging a total of 14,374 families and community members to promote positive social norms to prevent child marriage, teenage pregnancy and female genital mutilation.

In September 2021, with the support of Save the Children, the Minister of Education and Gender & Children’s Affairs set out to launch the Ending Child Marriage two-year pilot project in Sierra Leone. This project was implemented in 15 communities in the Kailahun district. The main aim of the project is to understand the local context and the drivers of adolescent pregnancy and child marriage and the entrenched patriarchal views that contribute to gender inequality.

In late 2018, the government, in collaboration with non-governmental organisation partners and United Nations agencies, launched a National Strategy on the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy and Ending Child Marriage in Sierra Leone (2018–2022). The National Strategy details the commitments to tackling the challenge of adolescent pregnancy and child marriage made across five government ministries and organised in six pillars:

Improve the policy and legal environment for the protection of
adolescents.

Provide adolescent and young people friendly (AYPF) services.

Ensure all adolescents have access to comprehensive sex education
and an enabling learning environment.

Increase demand for AYPF services.

Engage and empower communities to reduce of adolescent
pregnancy and child marriage.

Ensure the coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the strategy.

The strategy launch took place alongside the inauguration of a new flagship campaign Hands Off Our Girls led by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio and First Lady Fatima Bio, which focuses on ending child marriage and reducing teenage pregnancy to empower women.

Previously, the government implemented the “Let Girls be Girls, Not Mothers” (2013–2015), a two year national strategy for the reduction of teenage pregnancy developed in response to the recognition by national authorities of the high rates of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in the country.

The former First Lady of Sierra Leone, Sia Nyama Koroma (the current First Lady is Fatima Bio), initiated the idea of a regional high-level meeting on child marriage in West and Central Africa, which was held in 2017 in Dakar.

Until March 2020, visibly pregnant girls were banned from attending school and sitting exams. The ban was lifted following a ruling of the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in December 2019, which ordered it to be revoked with immediate effect. In addition, Sierra Leone will put in place a policy on ‘’radical inclusion” and “comprehensive safety’’ to ensure that girls who are pregnant or have a child attend school. This is an important measure to improve education for girls in the country, especially considering that teenage pregnancy is one of the drivers of child marriage.

On 2nd July 2024, President Maada Bio of Sierra Leone signed The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2024 into law.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act establishes 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage in Sierra Leone, with no exceptions, aligning all related laws. Previously, the 2007 Child Rights Act set the marriage age at 18, but the Customary Marriage and Divorce Act of 2009 permitted underage marriage with parental consent. The new law eliminates this inconsistency and strictly bans marriage for anyone under 18.