Switzerland

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

The Centre of Competence against Forced Marriage uncovered 119 cases of child marriage in the country in 2017, primarily among immigrants from Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

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 Switzerland.

Switzerland 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.

Switzerland 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, Switzerland also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

Switzerland ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1997, 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 1997, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2022 review, the CEDAW Committee noted with concern that despite the legal age of marriage being 18 years old, there are exceptions to marry at the age of 16 when it is considered to be in the best interests of the child. The Committee recommended that the government remove all exceptions to marriage before the age of 18 years.

In 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child commended Switzerland on their efforts to combat forced marriage and female genital mutilation. The Committee recommended that awareness-raising campaigns be developed in religious communities to highlight the harmful effects of child marriage on the mental and physical wellbeing of girls.

Switzerland 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 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.

Switzerland is a leading global advocate for gender equality, and funds many initiatives promoting the rights of women and girls through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The NGO Centre for Competence Against Forced Marriage with the support of the Swiss Federal Government, have established an online platform for at-risk individuals to declare their unwillingness to marry whilst they are abroad. This has stopped vulnerable people from leaving Switzerland This platform provides the government with the ability to protect vulnerable individuals who have been forced into marriages abroad, allowing authorities to prevent these people from leaving the country or invalidating their marriages on return. Since 2019, the centre has advised 123 young people who were married as children.

Under Article 94 of the Swiss Civil Code the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years with no exceptions.