CRANK Research Meeting: Learning from the latest evidence on child marriage prevention laws and their implications – Considering context, challenges and opportunities

The details:

Recent contributions to the evidence on the impact of child marriage laws underscore the importance of laws being part of more comprehensive legal and policy frameworks that address the root causes of child marriage and gender inequality. While it is important for countries to have a minimum age of marriage, laws in isolation are not enough to end child marriage. If these laws are not embedded in gender-transformative and rights-based approaches, they can contribute to negative outcomes for girls and their rights.

This CRANK research meeting built on recent work by Girls Not Brides and the Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions Sexuality Working Group. It was a space to:

• Consider the implications of recent global evidence for research, programming, advocacy and policymaking.
• Consider how evidence and its implications are context-specific, with examples from Malawi, Uganda and Zambia.
• Hear brief updates from researchers and practitioners on new or current child marriage research.

You can find all the resources from this meeting – recordings, presentations, key takeaways and notes – below. We hope you are inspired to use them in your work!

Key takeaways:

• Legal reform can signal high-level commitment to addressing child marriage and act as an entry point for investment in related areas, but there is often an over-reliance on the law as a tool for social change. Laws are often difficult to communicate, implement and evaluate, especially where there are conflicting laws, norms and practices around child marriage. Punitive approaches can be seen as a replacement for investment in structural change and girls’ wellbeing (e.g. education and health), which would provide alternatives to child marriage.
• Introducing or changing laws has mixed results, often only working for a subset of the population and/or over the short term, and risking negative consequences for those with the fewest alternatives. Negative impacts include the criminalisation and stigmatisation of adolescents and marginalised groups, increases in informal unions, and adolescents’ restricted access to other protective systems like justice, social support and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
• Adolescents’ evolving capacities[1] need to be recognised and integrated into international and national law on marriage and sexuality. Such laws need to be rights-based, gender-transformative and intersectional, informed by the different factors that put girls at risk and reduce their choices – like their age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, caste, location and citizenship. Laws should focus on capacity alongside age to balance protection from exploitation and abuse with the promotion of autonomy and agency. Sexual consent and marriage should not be conflated in law.
• Comprehensive and interconnected laws, policies and services work better than those that focus on age of marriage or sexual consent alone. For example, introducing child marriage laws alongside free secondary education policies could reduce the likelihood of marriage before age 15 by 55%.[2] Such combined policies can address the structural drivers and create alternatives to child marriage, influence adolescent and family decision-making, and expand access to gender-equitable services – like education, poverty alleviation, social protection, economic opportunities, SRHR and gender-based violence (GBV).
• Multisectoral approaches are needed to build and maintain the necessary political will and technical capacity to address child marriage and secure girls’ rights at scale. This means promoting intentional, coordinated collaboration across government departments, international agencies, community leaders and civil society organisations; and identifying, training and funding those responsible to implement clear strategies, including in humanitarian contexts.
• Laws and their impact need to be context-specific and continuously evaluated to ensure they have the intended outcome, to identify effective (combinations of) interventions and to ensure the legal system works for those who need it. Girls and adolescents – including those in informal unions and/or experiencing forced marriage – should be involved in gathering evidence, advocating, creating and implementing laws that respond to their lived realities and needs. Mixed-method studies may be an effective way to gather qualitative evidence where data is limited. Researchers, practitioners and advocates can also engage with feminist, violence against women and girls, HIV, SRHR and abortion movements to learn more about the role and limitations of the law – especially punitive approaches – and adolescent girls’ rights and agency.

Speakers:

• Sajeda Amin, Senior Associate, Population Council - drawing on a recent evidence review to inform the forthcoming WHO guidelines on preventing child marriage and responding to the needs of married girls.
• Katherine (Kat) Watson, Lawyer, researcher, and consultant – The impact of the law on child marriage and girls rights
• Sally Ncube, Regional Representative, Southern Africa, Equality Now - Ending Child Marriage in Eastern and Southern Africa: Challenges in Implementing Domestic Laws and the SADC Model Law on Child Marriage - Equality Now
• Rachel Kidman, Associate Professor, Stony Brook University - forthcoming paper: Reducing child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa: evaluating the joint potential of protective marriage and education policies

Moderator:

• Sara Martínez Cabello, Balance Mexico