Slovenia

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

According to the UN Secretary-General, Social Work Centres detected 14 cases of child marriage in 2013.

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 Slovenia.

According to a 2020 Slovenia human rights report, child marriage is prevalent within the Roma community.

Slovenia has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2020.

Slovenia 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, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. In 2014, Slovenia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Slovenia co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Slovenia succeeded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and succeeded 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 2023 review, the CEDAW Committee acknowledged the government’s progress on its national programmes of measures for the Roma community (2017-2021), which included target-oriented measures and recommendations such as addressing child and forced marriage. However, the Committee expressed concern at the prevalence of child marriage and adolescent pregnancies, particularly among the Roma community. The Committee recommended that the government promote access to education and health care, and for the government to take targeted measures, including age-appropriate sexuality education and free access to modern contraceptives to prevent adolescent pregnancy and child marriage. The Committee also recommended that the government raise awareness on the harmful effects of child marriage.

Slovenia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

At the London Girl Summit in July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.

Slovenia has intensified its efforts in dealing with the issue of early and forced marriages in the Roma community in recent years.

As reported by the government in its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, the 2017–2021 National Programme of Measures for Roma envisions the preparation of a protocol to deal with cases of non-marital cohabitation involving minors or elopement of minors into harmful environments (early marriages).

In November 2018, the Office for National Minorities organised national consultations on early and forced marriages, and in April 2019, two sets of regional consultations were held, one on forced and one on early marriages. The conclusions reached at the three events will serve as a basis for drafting a manual outlining a guideline for action to be taken by the competent institutions.

In its 2017 mid-term Universal Periodic Review, the government highlighted that social workers are taking part in training programmes to increase sensitivity in dealing with Roma children, and in raising awareness of the harmful consequences of early marriage among Roma girls and boys.

Following recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2013, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities commissioned an empirical research study on child marriage among Roma children. The study established that child marriages primarily arise from patriarchal orders and are institutionalised through social and cultural norms. The consequences are visible in the form of early dropouts of school and teenage pregnancies.

In 2016, the Ljudska univerza Kočevje alongside the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme of the European Union implemented the Early Marriage Prevention Network project. The main aim of this project was to foster cooperation between education, justice, health and child protection systems in order to combat and raise awareness on child marriage within the Roma community.

Similarly, in 2016 an Inter-governmental group for monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Istanbul Convention was established. This group alongside the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities organised trainings, implemented policies on gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and honour killings.

The Office for National Minorities in 2016 established programmes and activities to work with the Roma community on raising awareness on the negative consequences of child marriage. They set up the Early Marriage - Culture or Abuse? programme to raise awareness on child marriage and explore the sociological aspects of child marriage within the Roma community.

In November 2015 the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Union of Roma People of Slovenia, organised the conference "Roma Women – from Childhood to Parenthood". The conference concluded that the prevention of forced marriages could be tackled through greater attention to adolescent pregnancy and promoting education, health and employment among Roma women and girls.

Under Article 18 of the Marriage and Family Relations Act 1977 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. However, under Article 23, where good grounds for the marriage exist, the Centre for Social Work may allow a person under 18 to marry.

Amendments to the Criminal Code (Official Gazette No. 54/2015), which entered into force in October 2015, introduced a new criminal offence under Article 132.a titled “Forced Marriage or a Similar Union”. The Article outlines that anyone found to force another person into marriage shall be sentenced to three years in prison, and up to five years if a minor is involved.