Tonga

10% of girls in Tonga marry before the age of 18.

3% of boys in Tonga marry before the age of 18.

Child marriage is prevalent in Tongatapu (6%), Vava´u (6%), Ha´apai (9%), Eua (10%),and Ongo Niua (6%).

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

There is very limited information on child marriage in Tonga, but available data suggests that it is exacerbated by:

Violence against girls: Some young girls are forced to marry perpetrators who rape them. This decision is largely driven by a girl’s family to prevent shame upon the family.

Family honour: Human Rights Watch reported that some girls are made to get married if they are seen with boys, in a bid to protect their honour.

Level of education: 16% of women married before the age of 18 have completed primary school and 5% upper secondary school.

Poverty: 10% of women and 6% of men who are married before the age of 18 are from the poorest households in Tonga and 4% of women and 3% of men in the richest households.

Tonga 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 2019 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2019.

Tonga acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18. Tonga is one of few countries that has not signed or ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2019, the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child expressed serious concerns that several laws are not in line with the Convention and recommended Tonga to revise the definition of a child and set the minimum age for marriage at 18 years.

During its 2023 Universal Periodic Review, it was noted that the Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) Act is currently under review to raise the legal minimum age of marriage to 18 years.

During its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, it was recommended that the government declare marriages taking place with people below the minimum legal age as void ab initio, meaning that they should have no legal basis under any pretext, including custom, religion and traditional practice. Furthermore, it recommended increasing punishment for perpetrators to be commensurate with the seriousness of the offence.

During its 2018 Universal Periodic Review, Tonga supported recommendations to modify national legislation to prohibit child marriage and increase the minimum age of marriage to 18.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Tonga committed to empower girls and young people to make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive health and rights and end sexual and gender-based violence by 2030.

Tonga is a partner country for the Global Partnership for Education.

Regionally, the Spotlight Pacific Regional Initiative builds on existing commitments across 16 Pacific Island countries, including Tonga. Through the grants mechanism from the Spotlight Initiative, the UN Women office has allocated funds to the National Centre for Women and Children, Tonga Leitis Association, Kolomotu’a Women’s Council and the National Rugby League Tonga to increase awareness on violence against women and girls. These grassroot organizations aim to strengthen referral pathways for victims and survivors of violence.

Between 2009-2018, UN Women established the Pacific Regional Ending Violence Against Women Facility Fund (Pacific Fund) in 8 Pacific countries: Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. This fund specialized in the regional facilitation and support of local governments and civil society organizations to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls using a gender-responsive human rights approach.

In May 2017, the Ministry of Justice supported the Let Girls be Girls campaign launched by the NGO Talitha Project to end child marriage. The campaign is lobbying for the repeal of the Births, Deaths and Marriage Registration Act 1926 which states that children aged between 15 and 17 can get married with parental permission.

As of 2017, the Ministry of Justice was consulting on amendments to marriage laws, including raising the minimum legal age of marriage. In 2018, Tonga also reported that the Women’s Affairs Department was developing awareness-raising activities and consultations in relation to the ratification of CEDAW.

In 2016, Deputy Speaker of the House, Lord Tuʻiʻāfitu, told Parliament he is shocked by child marriage in Tonga and referred to the Parent Consent Act 1926 as “embarrassing”.

According to Section 6 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act the legal minimum age of marriage is 15 years for boys and girls.

Boys and girls aged 15-17 years require parental consent to be married under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act. The Parent Consent Act 1926 also gives parents power to allow their children to marry.