Journal of Law and Criminal Justice

Violation of Women’s Rights: the Implication of Girl-Child Marriages as an Aberration of International Human Rights
Foluke Oluyemisi Abimbola, LL.B, BL, LL.M, PhD

Abstract
Child marriage has devastating consequences for a girl’s life. Child brides are frequently deprived of their rights to health, education, safety and participation. Thus, girls who marry young are far less likely to stay in school, with lifelong economic impacts. They are often isolated, with their freedom curtailed and they are at a higher risk of physical and sexual violence. Recently, girl-child marriage has increased due to a number of factors including insecurity. Now kidnapped girls are “married off.” For example, child marriage rates have risen in war-ravaged Yemen, one of the few countries in the world without a legal minimum age for marriage. Now more than two-thirds of Yemen’s girls are married before age 18, compared to half before the conflict escalated. In Africa, an estimated 12 million girls are still married each year. Thus, globally, girls affected by conflict are more than 20% more likely to marry as children than those living outside of conflict zones. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that child marriage can be viewed as a violation of children’s rights and a form of gender-based violence that robs children of childhood as well as a form of slavery and servitude which is contrary to international human rights law. This research, proposes that potential victims and /or girls who are forced into child-marriage may be offered special protection such as asylum if governments recognize the act as a gross human right violation.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v11n2a3