12/13/2013 • Unchained tells U.N.: Early/forced marriage is a U.S. problem too

Unchained tells the U.N.: U.S. Law Allows Forced/Child Marriage

Unchained is pleased to announce it has submitted a memo to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights about laws in the U.S. that easily allow parents to pressure, coerce or force children under the age of 18 into marriage.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights plans to  submit a report about child, early and forced marriage to the Human Rights Council in June 2014, and Unchained hopes the information it provided will be included in that report — as evidence that such marriages happen in the U.S., not only in Asia and Africa, and with Unchained’s recommendations for how to protect U.S. children from such marriages.

A Problem in the U.S. Too
Unchained’s memo to the High Commissioner noted that the U.S. has no legislation criminalizing forced marriage, and its laws surrounding the minimum marriage age easily allow for parents to pressure, coerce or force children under the age of 18 into marriage.

1. Conduct the first-ever nationwide study in the U.S. on how often children under age 18 have been and are getting married in the U.S. under the “parental consent” or “judicial approval” exceptions or under state law in Nebraska and Wyoming; and
2. Enact federal legislation or state-by-state legislation eliminating the two exceptions, raising the minimum marriage age in Nebraska and Wyoming, and establishing 18 as the minimum age to marry anywhere in the US.