The impact of age of marriage and sexual consent laws on child marriage and girls’ rights

Laws play a central role in our collective work to address child marriage. By 2019, advocacy by civil society had significantly contributed to some 52% of countries establishing 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage without exceptions.

But there is growing evidence that age-centric marriage and sexual consent laws can have negative consequences for girls and adolescents when not part of a comprehensive, gender-transformative approach that supports girls’ rights and is sensitive to context. Our first online Learning Series session of 2024 explored this evidence and what it means for our collective work.

In the countdown to the Summit of the Future in September – and in the context of continuing pressures from conflict, crisis, climate change, COVID-19 and the rising cost of living – we must address the root causes of practices like child marriage. This means engaging with the complexity of gendered inequality, and acknowledging that legal change alone cannot secure girls’ rights.

Key takeaways:

• Laws are an important entry point for social norms change and investment, but may have little impact on child marriage prevalence and have negative consequences for girls if they are not part of a comprehensive, context-sensitive, gender-transformative approach to girls’ rights. Laws need to be harmonised, and balance respect for adolescents’ evolving capacities with protection from gender-based violence and abuse. They should be accompanied by investments that promote gender equality, including girls’ education, access to health, economic rights, protection and quality comprehensive sexuality education. Civil society should work with governments to deliver this.
• The use of punitive or criminal approaches to adolescent sexuality and marriage can have negative consequences for girls. Such approaches may lead to increases in informal unions and/or encourage people to marry in secrecy. This means girls cannot access the information and services – including around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) – social support or justice they need and are entitled to. Laws may also be used selectively to punish or control girls, and can exacerbate existing marginalisations based on ethnicity and race.
• Context and identity factors heavily influence the impact of the law and the dynamics of marriage/union. Research, advocacy and programming need to be led by understanding of context, and centred around adolescents’ evolving capacities and consent, as expressed by them. Community and religious leaders can be powerful partners in transforming the social norms that drive child marriage and affect reporting and implementation of the law. Rurality, ethnicity and experience of crisis are important factors affecting the impact of the law.
• Girls who are – or have been – married/in a union or who have experienced forced marriage face barriers to accessing justice. Addressing these barriers could include removing the requirement to be a legal adult to access the legal system, organising legal literacy campaigns, offering legal aid, strengthening and simplifying birth and marriage registration systems, and investing in support services like shelters, school reintegration and counselling. This should be combined with gender-transformative work in communities, focusing on law enforcement officers and service providers.

Check out the resources from this webinar for:

• The key findings from a review of more than 90 studies of academic and grey literature around the impact of age of marriage and sexual consent laws.
• An exploration of what the evidence means for our collective work to address child marriage and support girls’ rights.
• Insights from two Girls Not Brides member organisations in Malawi and Nepal on what this evidence means for their work.

The speakers were:

• Jacky Repila, Senior Gender Officer, Girls Not Brides
• Katherine (Kat) Watson, Lawyer, researcher and consultant, based in Germany
• Irada Gautam, President and Founder of AAWAAJ, Nepal
• James Gondwe, Executive Director and Founder, Ulalo (Formerly the Centre for Youth and Development), Malawi

Related resources:

Check out our evidence review and brief on this topic, available in our Resource Centre! This work builds on that done by the Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions and Sexuality Working Group, of which Girls Not Brides is a member.

More information, recordings and resources from our Learning Series are available on our website.

• Girls Not Brides, 2024, The impact of the law on child marriage and girls’ rights, prepared by Katherine Watson.
• Girls Not Brides, 2023, The absolute prohibition of unions in adolescence is not in the best interests of children.
• Women Power Connect, Socio-Legal Information Centre and Girls Not Brides, 2022, The status of child marriage in India: A guide for NGOs and CSOs using the law to end child marriages in India..CREA, 2023, Flaws in laws: Challenging criminalisation of young people’s bodily autonomy – Primer and sourcebook.
• Girls Not Brides, 2023, Towards a future without child miarriage: Written statement to inform the Pact of the Future.
• Equality Now, 2023, To end child marriage in Southern and Eastern Africa, governments need to strengthen laws and implementation.
• Women Power Connect and Girls Not Brides, 2022, The status of child marriage in India: A guide for NGOs and CSOs on using the law to end child marriages in India.

Learning spaces and opportunities:

• The Child, Early and Forced Marriage and Unions and Sexuality Working Group, of which Girls Not Brides is a member. See their website for their position statement and recommendations concerning the law.
• Injusta Justicia (Unjust Justice), coordinated by RESURJ, Vecinas Feministas and Balance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Sign up to the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law mailing list for opportunities to collaborate.