Trinidad and Tobago

11% of girls in Trinidad and Tobago are married or in a union before the age of 18 and 3% are married or in a union before the age of 15.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are most prevalent in the East of the country.

According to UNICEF, CEFMU in Trinidad and Tobago frequently takes the form of a “visiting relationship” — an informal union, with a social and sexual relationship but no cohabitation.

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.

There is limited information on CEFMU in Trinidad and Tobago, but available studies show that it is driven by:

Poverty:25% of women with primary level education were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to only 10% who had completed secondary school or higher.

Religion: An MP presented evidence in 2017 suggesting that child marriage is a phenomenon driven by many different religious communities, including Hindus, Muslims and Christians in Trinidad and Tobago.

Adolescent pregnancy: Between 2015-2020, the adolescent birth rate was 32%. 6% of child births are attributed to mothers under the age of 18. Adolescents’ lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services and comprehensive age-appropriate sexuality education drives adolescent pregnancy and contributes to child marriage and early unions in Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad and Tobago have committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a 2020 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum. It was raised that through the Marriage Act 2017 and the National Policy on Gender and Development, child marriage was abolished.

Trinidad and Tobago ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1990, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2020 Universal Periodic Review, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern that domestic legislation allowed for girls to be married as young as 12 years old. Early marriage was the cause of low school enrolment rates, and exposed young girls in Trinidad and Tobago to early adolescent pregnancy and other health risks such as maternal mortality. The Committee recommended that the government raise the legal minimum age of marriage to 18 years old for both boys and girls and be harmonised with the age of sexual consent.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Trinidad and Tobago supported recommendations to strengthen efforts to eradicate child marriage and ensure implementation of existing legislation on the minimum legal age for marriage.

In 2016 the CEDAW Committee raised concerns that the 1923 Marriage Act, the 1945 Hindu Marriage Act, the 1961 Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act and the 1999 Orisa Marriage Act allowed for girls to be married at the ages of 12, 14 and 16 years respectively, hence legitimising child marriage. The country team recommended that the government reconcile the instruments so that the minimum age of marriage for both girls and boys is in line with international standards.

Inconsistent and conflicting laws around child marriage and the age of consent were identified as an utmost priority in the country’s 2016 CEDAW shadow report.

Trinidad and Tobago, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls to governments to strengthen the respond to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.

Trinidad and Tobago ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1996. In 2016, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.

Trinidad and Tobago, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was also approved by the ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy, and gender equality, during the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the countries where the Spotlight Initiative (a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations) is supporting efforts to end all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls.

The National Sexual & Reproductive Health Policy, adopted in 2016, highlights the correlation between child marriage and early unions with adolescent pregnancy. It includes in its objectives the abolition of laws that allow child marriage and reducing adolescent pregnancy through the provision of comprehensive Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) information and services.

The National Policy on Gender and Development implemented by the Office of the Prime Minister (Gender and Child Affairs Unit) aims to promote gender equality. One of its main achievements has been to abolish child marriage.

The Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), the longest-serving NGO in the country, works to raise awareness in local communities on child marriage, sexual and reproductive health and domestic violence. Working alongside other key stakeholders, they have worked to have the legal minimum age of marriage raised to 18 years old.

In January 2017, the Attorney General introduced a bill to harmonise the country's marriage laws and raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 years old, without exception.

In May 2016 child marriage was the subject of heated debate after the Inter-Religious Organisation suggested that the country’s marriage laws should not be amended, despite allowing girls as young as 12 to get married.

Since 2011 the National Hindu Women’s Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago has engaged in extensive campaigns and petitions to the Minister of Legal Affairs to change Marriage Acts which have enabled child marriages.

The minimum age of marriage in Trinidad and Tobago is 18, without exceptions.

In 2017, the Miscellaneous Provisions Marriage Bill successfully passed through both Houses of Parliament and obtained Presidential Assent. This Marriage Act amends the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, Hindu Marriage Act, Orisa Marriage Act and Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act, raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 years.