LAWS ON SEXUAL ABUSE.
Many child marriages occur when a girl is below a country’s legal age of consent for sexual relations. The legal age of consent for sexual relations means an age at which a country determines a person is legally competent to give their consent to have sex.
If a child marriage occurs when a child - usually a girl - is below this age, this should mean that a husband having sex with a wife under the legal age of consent is child sexual abuse, or rape. This is because someone below this age is deemed by the government to be unable to give their consent.
Unfortunately, very few countries have made it a crime for an adult spouse to have sexual relations with a child they are married to. In fact, many countries do not have laws which prevent forced sexual relations or rape within a marriage, regardless of the age of the husband and wife.
1.
A country should establish an appropriate legal age of consent, regardless of gender.
Many countries have already established a legal age of consent for sexual relations, and in most instances, this age varies between 14-18. This means that the act of having sex with someone below that age is automatically illegal - this is called ‘statutory rape’.
In some, but not all, of the countries where the age of consent is at the lower end, there are clauses which state that sex at that age is only legal between people of similar ages - meaning that usually, an adult cannot legally have sex with someone aged 14-16, even if the age of consent is within that bracket.
A handful of countries have no age of consent for sexual relations, and in these countries sex outside of a marriage is usually illegal. However, several of these countries do not ban child marriage, or have discriminatory laws about the legal age for marriage. For example, in Afghanistan and Qatar, sex outside marriage is illegal, and the legal ages for marriage are 18 for men, and 16 for girls (although this can be lower in both countries with the consent of parents, or a judge in Afghanistan).
A legal age of consent is an important part of the legal framework to protect girls from child marriage - and to protect all children from child sexual abuse. In setting this age, governments should:
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acknowledge the freedoms of adolescents
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not discriminate between genders
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prevent adults from having sex with children.
2.
If a country has a legal age of consent for sexual relations, sex between an adult spouse and a child spouse should be classified as rape.
In most cases of child marriage, girls are married to adult men. This includes girls who were married by age 15. In Niger, an estimated 22% of girls who were married by age 15 were married to adult men. An adult having sex with a child should be classified as child sexual abuse, and a wedding ceremony or a marriage certificate should not absolve an adult of raping a child.
However, laws which classify sexual relations between an adult spouse and a child spouse as rape usually only exist when child marriage has already been banned - India is a good example of this, where the laws against child marriage and the laws against child sexual abuse work together.
This means that a campaign to establish this kind of law may only be successful in countries which have banned child marriage, but which have not yet classified sexual relations between an adult spouse and a child spouse as child sexual abuse. This especially applies when countries have very recently banned child marriage, such as Sierra Leone and Colombia in 2024.
If a country allows child marriage, it is very unlikely it will create this kind of law. However, almost every country which allows child marriage has a legal age of consent, and this can be higher than the age of marriage. For example, both Uganda and Ethiopia set the age of consent at 18, but both countries allow child marriage if a legal guardian or an official gives their consent.
3.
If a country makes a law which states that forced sexual relations within a marriage are classified as sexual assault or rape - between a husband and wife of any age - this ensures that ALL women and girls can be protected.
The principle that sexual assault and rape can happen within a marriage is not exclusive to child marriage - it can happen whatever the age of the spouses, but it is more likely to happen in child marriages. In addition, too many countries have exceptions to their laws on rape which permit rape within a marriage (marital rape).
If a country has a law which bans marital rape, this allows any girl or woman to report their husbands to the authorities if he forces her to have sex. In Sierra Leone and Colombia, where child marriage has only recently been banned, the governments had already recognised marital rape as a crime. This meant that before child marriage was banned, a child still had a way to report their spouse for forced sexual relations.
However, it should be acknowledged that women and girls may face challenges when taking this route, especially if they have no safe way to separate themselves or their children from their husbands.
