Suriname

36% of girls in Suriname marry or enter a union before age 18 and 9% marry before age 15.

20% of boys marry before the age of 18.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are much more prevalent in rural areas in the interior of the country, and in Sipaliwini (where 62% of women aged 20-24 were married or in a union before the age of 18) and Brokopondo (51%).

In Suriname, most unions are informal, rather than a formal marriage.

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 Suriname, but available data show that it is driven by:

● Level of education: 49% of women with only primary were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to only 25% who had completed or higher.

● Poverty: The risk of entering a union or marriage is significantly higher among the poorest girls and adolescents. Around half of women in Suriname’s poorest households were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to 22% in the richest.

● Ethnicity: CEFMU is much more common among Javanese, indigenous/Amerindian, Maroon and Creole people.

Suriname 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 2022 High Level Political Forum. However, there was no mention of child marriage.

Suriname co-sponsored the 2014 UN General Assembly resolution on child, early and forced marriage.

Suriname 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 1993, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During Suriname’s 2018 review, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern about the disproportionately high number of rural, Maroon and indigenous girls aged 15-17 who were married, the absence of a national strategy to combat and prevent child marriage, and the absence of a legal framework for tribal marriages.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, the government reaffirmed their commitment to eliminating child marriage.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Suriname agreed to examine recommendations to amend legislation in order to increase the minimum age of marriage in line with international standards.

Suriname, 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.

Suriname ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 2002. 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.

Suriname, 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.

Civil Code (1859, with amendments)

Article 82

A young man, of the full age of seventeen, and a young daughter, not having reached the full age of fifteen, may not enter into marriage.

However, the President may, for weighty reasons, lift this prohibition by granting dispensation.

Article 88

In order to contract a marriage, a minor shall require the consent of his parents, insofar as they are in marital relations with him and can declare their will.

A minor who is under guardianship shall also require the consent of the guardian to enter into a marriage.

In case of marriage with the guardian, or with one of his direct relatives, the consent of the supervising guardian shall also be required.

Article 382

Minors are those who have not reached the full age of twenty-one years and have not been married before.

If the marriage is dissolved before their full age of one and twenty years, they do not return to the state of minority.

Minors who are not under parental authority shall be under guardianship, on the footing and in the manner prescribed by the third, fourth, fifth and sixth sections of this title.