Human Rights Maps (59): Child Marriage
Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in union before the age of 18 (period 1987 to 2006):
(source)
More on child marriage (see also here).
Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in union before the age of 18 (period 1987 to 2006):
More on child marriage (see also here).
In the U.S., a person under the age of 18 can get married with the permission of their parents. If a 17 year old asked his parents if he could get married and they agreed, would this be a violation of his human rights?
The exact age limit is debatable. The point is that child marriage, whatever it means, robs children of (part of) their education. Which is a human right. In the case of girls – and that’s the case in many countries in the world – child marriage is part of systemic gender discrimination. Robbing girls of their education makes them easier target for discrimination. Often the husband is much older and in a position of power.
So there is no clear distinction between a violation of human rights and a preference to get married that isn’t a violation of human rights?
It’s not because people prefer something that it can’t be a violation of their human rights. To take another example. It’s often said that some women accept and even prefer – and even think it is morally required or required by God – that they have less rights than the men in their society. Of course, it’s highly questionable that these preferences are real preferences. A preference, or a choice, can be corrupted by a lack of education, indoctrination, etc. Hence, unequal treatment for women – less education for example – has a self-fulfilling effect. The unequal treatment of women shapes their preferences in such a way that they become tools in the continuation of their own unequal treatment. Given better and more equal education, their preferences would perhaps be different.
I don’t mean to imply that there is equivalence between this example and the case of child marriage (although there are links). I simply want to point to the fact that preferences shouldn’t be taken as a given. Children can be “taught” to prefer child marriage. And still it would be a violation of their rights.