Timor-Leste

15% of girls in Timor-Leste marry before their 18th birthday and 3% marry before the age of 15.

1% of boys in Timor-Leste marry before the age of 18.

De facto unions and unregistered traditional marriages are common in Timor-Leste, meaning that the prevalence of child marriage could be higher due to their informal and unreported nature.

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

In Timor-Leste, child marriage is also driven by:

● Poverty: Some families reportedly force their daughters to marry boys chosen by them or marry them off because dowry has already been paid. Sometimes this is to meet financial obligations and girls are treated as commodities in a transaction.

● Level of education: Girls who leave school early are generally considered “eligible” to marry, regardless of their age.

● Harmful practices: The concept of marriage in Timor-Leste is more fluid than in other contexts. Child marriages take the form of traditional marriages (kaben adat) and church marriages (kaben igreja), and the practice of barlake (bride price-based marriage, recognised in the Civil Code) has played a substantial role in the arranged marriages of girls in exchange for payment.

● Adolescent pregnancy: A 2017 Plan report shows that when some young girls become pregnant, they marry soon after. Given conservative Catholic attitudes towards sex in Timorese communities, many girls are quietly encouraged to “fix” pregnancy through marriage before neighbours find out. Strategies to prevent adolescent pregnancy have focused on controlling girls’ movements and attempting to preserve their “innocence”. UNFPA argues that Timorese communities do not need to be convinced of the negative consequences of child marriage, but instead require assistance in developing effective strategies to promote contraception and safe sexual and reproductive health among adolescents.

● Family honour and social pressure: Some girls are reportedly forced into marriages by their mothers when it becomes time to “formalise” their relationships with boyfriends. In a 2017 study, one girl reported that this involved being locked in a room and being forced into sex in order to prove the strength of the relationship.

● Self-initiated marriage: In a 2017 study, girls reported choosing to get married in order to escape abusive and high pressured situations at home or to improve their quality of life.

Timor-Leste 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 2023 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government acknowledged the importance of girls’ education and providing gender-sensitive facilities to reduce child marriage rates.

Timor-Leste co-sponsored the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Timor-Leste acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2003, 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 2003, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2015, the Committee of the Rights of the Child and CEDAW Committee expressed similar concerns that child marriage, especially of girls, remains highly prevalent in the country, and urged the government to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for girls and boys, and take action to end and raise awareness on the harmful practice of child marriage.

During its 2023 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns at the increasing school dropout rates among girls, which has increased the rates of adolescent pregnancies and child marriage. The Committee also raised concerns at the lack of menstrual hygiene products and separate sanitary facilities for girls, particularly in rural areas, and the lack of adequate reproductive and sexual health education. The Committee recommended that the government: (1) strengthen literacy campaigns, particularly in rural areas, to increase literacy rates among adolescent mothers, girls living in poverty and girls with disabilities; (2) integrate inclusive and accessible curricula on gender equality, including on the harmful impacts of gender-based violence and child marriage, and incorporate into curricula age appropriate reproductive and sexual health education; and (3) raise awareness among community and religious leaders on the importance of girls’ education.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, the government acknowledged the existence of child marriage, particularly in remote areas, mainly due to poverty. In order to prevent child marriage, the government and the Ministry of Health are raising awareness in schools and communities on the harmful impacts of child marriage.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Timor-Leste agreed to examine recommendations to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 with no exceptions, traditional or otherwise, and to raise awareness of this law.

Timor-Leste is one of the four countries in the Pacific region where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between European Union and United Nations) is supporting partners and institutions to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.

Timor-Leste is a partner development country of the Global Partnership for Education.

In January 2021 Plan International Timor-Leste and stakeholders officially launched “National Let’s Go Digital” to provide information on the use of Digital Technology to end child marriage, forced marriage and to reduce adolescent pregnancy.

A 2017 report from Plan International, UNFPA and the Timorese government presents the social determinants of child marriage. It argues that adolescent pregnancy is not a phenomenon acting in isolation, but is also the principal cause of early marriage in Timor-Leste.

Following this report, in 2017, the Timorese government proposed a family planning policy, largely inspired by Catholic religious beliefs, that would promote the Billings Method (a natural birth control method based on the observation of the cervical mucus) as the leading form of contraception, only granted to those already married. NGOs such as Plan International denounced this move, saying that excluding young and unmarried girls from accessing contraception would risk perpetuating child marriage as a result of pregnancy.

The National Action Plan for Children (2016-2020) mentions the development of awareness raising campaigns with local authorities on the harmful effects of early marriage.

Timor-Leste’s Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030 also aims to provide information about the negative impact of child marriage on local communities.

Under the Civil Code 2011 the minimum legal age of marriage is 17 years. However, it is possible to marry at 16 years with parental consent.

This rule applies to civil, Catholic and traditional bride-price (kaben adat) marriages.