Togo

25% of girls in Togo are married before the age of 18 and 6% are married before the age of 15.

3% of boys in Togo are married before the age of 18.

The highest rates of child marriage are found in the regions of Savanes (13%), Kara (8%), Plateaux (6%), Centrale and Maritime (5%).

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys. In Togo, child marriage is also driven by:

● Level of education: Girls with primary or no education are much more likely (36%) to marry early than those with further education (12%). When girls do not achieve certain standards at school they are sometimes married to older men in their village.

● Harmful practices: Forced marriage is reportedly common in the northern part of Togo and the Vogan region. This involves a lengthy negotiation process between families, taking into consideration religious traditions and dowry. Some parents marry off their daughters at a young age because they can reach more favourable arrangements while they are still virgins. If girls try to resist forced marriage, they face being banished from their families.

● Family honour: High value is placed on virginity, whereas sex and pregnancy out of wedlock brings dishonour to families, which also diminishes the value of the daughter's dowry. The fear of girls becoming pregnant drives many parents to marry their daughters early.

● Cultural norms: The practice of pledging children in marriage at a young age, although banned in the country’s Children’s Code, is reportedly still practiced in the Kara region and Dankpen prefecture.

● Religion: In Muslim communities, girls are reportedly married as young as 12 to men who are much older.

● Adolescent pregnancy: Between 2015-2020, the adolescent birth rate in Togo was 79 births per 1000 girls aged 15-19, with 17% of girls giving birth before the age of 18.

Togo 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. In response to the increasing rates of child marriage, the government has aimed to combat harmful practices, gender-based violence and child marriage. This has been done through the establishment of 86 safe spaces, targeting 650 community and religious leaders in order to raise awareness. Through these programmes, 760 adolescents received life skills training. Following the training, these adolescents implemented action plans to raise awareness and they were able to reach 24,288 adolescents. In the Savanes region, 60 communities were reached and Allô 1011 was launched to provide psychological support to victims of abuse. Allô 1011 received 2,943 reported cases of violence against children between 2019 and April 2023, which enabled 2,662 children to be taken into care.

In July 2021 at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris, Togo committed to a 5-year action journey to accelerate gender equality by 2026. The $40 million USD investment will include the development of legal and social change to end gender-based violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation in Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Benin.

Togo 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, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage.

Togo co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage. In 2014, Togo also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Togo ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1983, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 1998 Togo ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage. In 2005 Togo ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

During its 2023 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the government to remove all exceptions to marriage before the age of 18 years. The Committee also urged the government to implement the Declaration of Notsé and implement legislation to prohibit child marriage and FMG/C. The Committee acknowledged that the in 2022, the government repealed No. 8478/MEN-RS of 15 December 1978 which excluded pregnant adolescent girls from attending school. The government has since developed several national action plans to tackle adolescent pregnancy, such as the National Programme to Combat Teenage Pregnancy and Early Marriage (2015-2019) and the Integrated Strategic Plan for Reproductive Health, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (2018-2022).

In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern that child marriages are still widely practiced throughout Togo, and prosecution of those involved has not been given priority.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, Togo reiterated its commitment to ending harmful practices through legal frameworks such as the Constitution, the new Criminal Code and the Persons and Family Code and the Children’s Code, which protect against harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage. Other commitments include the implementation of the National Programme to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancies and Child Marriage in School and Out-of-School settings. The new Criminal Code prohibits child marriage, rape, FGM/C and gender-based violence.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Togo supported recommendations to prosecute all cases of child marriage and punish perpetrators according to the law.

As a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 2017 Togo adopted the Strategic Framework for Strengthening National Child Protection Systems under which protecting children from marriage is a priority. In June 2019, the ECOWAS Heads of State endorsed the ECOWAS Child Policy and Strategic Action Plan and the 2019-2030 Roadmap on prevention and response to child marriage.

In addition, in July 2019, the ECOWAS First Ladies signed “The Niamey Declaration: Call to End Child Marriage and to promote the Education and empowerment of Girls”, calling Member States to initiate legislative, institutional and budgetary reforms to implement the 2019-2030 Roadmap.

Togo is a partner country of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).

The Togolese Ministries of Education, Gender and Health developed a National Programme Against Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy (2014-2019) which focuses on providing social protection to girls who are married as children.

The multi-sectoral approach centres on five areas:

● Improving legal frameworks.

● Keeping adolescent girls in the education system.

● Providing adolescent-friendly information and sexual and reproductive health services.

● Encouraging adolescent girls’ leadership and strengthening the capacity of families, communities, and traditional and religious leaders.

● Coordination, advocacy, resource mobilisation and monitoring and evaluation.

With support from UNICEF, the Minister of Social Action and Gender led a National Forum on Ending Child Marriage in March 2016. Prior to the Forum, regional consultations with religious and traditional leaders were held which resulted in the adoption of an “additional commitment” to the 2013 declaration to accelerate efforts towards ending child marriage.

Other measures to combat child marriage include the implementation of the National Programme to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancies and Child Marriage in School and Out-of-School settings between 2015-2019. These efforts involved religious and traditional leaders in ending harmful practices.

Under the Code of the Child 2007 the minimum legal age of marriageis 18 years. However it is possible to marry at 16 years for serious cause with permission from judicial and parental consent.