Thailand

17% of girls in Thailand marry before their 18th birthday and 6% marry before the age of 15.

6% of boys in Thailand marry before the age of 18.

Child marriage is most common in the North (24%), Central (19%), Northeast and South (17%), and Bangkok (9%). .

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Thailand, child marriage is also driven by:

● Level of education: 13% of Thai women with no education and 48% with primary education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 5% who had completed higher education.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Adolescent pregnancy is a driver for child marriage in Thailand and is connected to a high unmet need for comprehensive sexuality education and family planning, particularly among indigenous communities. Unlike in South Asia where an early marriage usually provides the means for socially sanctioned sex to then occur, with adolescent pregnancy quickly following, unplanned pregnancy in Thailand often leads to early marriage or unions due to stigma.

● Poverty: 29% of women in Thailand’s poorest households were married before 18, compared to 6% from the richest households. Many young girls are married so families can collect the bride price and to ease a perceived financial burden on families.

● Harmful practices: Customary practices fuel child marriage in rural areas, where laws and regulations are less enforced or monitored. In these areas, young women take on household responsibilities from an early age, and this is seen as a mark of their “readiness” for adulthood and marriage.

● Sexual violence against girls: The Criminal Law provides that girls between 13 and 15 years of age can be married to their perpetrator in cases of sexual violence, so that the perpetrator can avoid criminal punishment.

● Ethnicity: Child marriage particularly affects indigenous girls in Thailand, who generally face bigger barriers to accessing education and justice in cases of sexual violence. They are financially disempowered and are often restricted from making decisions which affect their lives. Child marriage also disproportionately affects the Hmong ethnic group living in Thailand, and Malay Muslim women in the south of the country, who are governed by customary practices and Islamic Family law. In four border provinces, the Islamic Family law allows girls to marry as soon as they reach puberty.

● COVID-19: The pandemic has impacted the limited progress that has been made on gender equality and women’s rights in Thailand. Increased isolation, the rise in online interaction, economic hardship, and other stress factors increase the potential risk of domestic violence, abuse and sexual exploitation for women and children

Thailand 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 2021 High Level Political Forum. However, there was no mention of child marriage. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2021.

Thailand has co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights, the 2017 resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 resolution which focused on the consequences of child marriage, the 2021 resolution which focused on the impact of COVID-19 on child marriage, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage.

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

Thailand acceded 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 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2017, the CEDAW Committee expressed concerns that child marriage continued to take place in Thailand, in particular in rural and remote areas, and that underage girls who are sexually abused can be married to the perpetrator. The Committee urged the country to ensure that the minimum age of marriage be 18 years for both girls and boys, take measures to end child marriage, and conduct research on the extent of the practice of abduction of girls for the purposes of forced marriage.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Thailand supported recommendations to ensure the minimum age of marriage is 18 for both boys and girls.

Thailand has committed to the ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Violence against Children (2013), which acknowledges the importance of strengthening ASEAN efforts to protect children from all forms of violence, including early marriage.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Thailand committed to reduce early marriage below age 18 by empowering female students to continue their education.

Under the Civil and Commercial Code of Thailand 1985 the minimum legal age of marriage is 20 years. However, individuals are able to marry at 17 years with parental consent.

In addition, the Court may approve the marriage of individuals under the age of 17 when there is an “appropriate reason” to do so, but the Civil and Commercial Code does not specify what reasons might be considered appropriate.

Muslim communities are able to apply Islamic law to family matters due to a legal loophole. As a result, local mosques can marry girls and boys aged 17 and younger with the permission of the Islamic court or the parents, and following the consideration of a special sub-committee.