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Servile marriage 2012, para. 99
- Paragraph text
- In many countries with a legal minimum age for marriage, there are also exceptions for girls below that age. Where exceptions exist, rigorous procedures must be put in place to ensure that the marriage is in the child's best interests. Private and public institutions must be required to systematically consider how children's rights and interests are affected by their decisions and actions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 97
- Paragraph text
- Programmes should be put in place to support the victims of servile marriage by providing, for example, shelter (in some cases in the long term), legal assistance (in particular for children who have been victims), financial compensation after divorce and continuing education.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, although laws may be in place to protect women and girls from servile marriage, the authorities fail to prosecute the perpetrators. Consequently, victims do not seek help from the police or judiciary as they fear further abuse from Government authorities or being forcibly returned to their husbands. According to a 2008 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, between 70 and 80 per cent of Afghan marriages are forced, and 57 per cent are child marriages where one of the spouses is under the age of 16 years. In 2009, Afghanistan enacted legislation on the elimination of violence against women, in order to criminalize servile marriage and ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. The law does not, however, address how authorities should treat a woman who runs away to escape the offences criminalized under the law. Consequently, girls and women who flee servile marriage are arrested and often convicted of intent to have sex outside marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- In India, under section 13 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, magistrates can issue an injunction against any person, including a member of an organization or an association of persons, prohibiting a child marriage where they are convinced that such a marriage has been arranged or is about to be solemnized.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 87
- Paragraph text
- The right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex features in numerous international human rights instruments in relation to marriage. For example, articles 1 and 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women call for the elimination of discrimination against women in all matters related to marriage and family relations. Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of children to be free from discrimination, including on the grounds of age and sex. In cases where there is a difference between the minimum age for girls and boys to marry, however, the minimum age for girls is always lower than that for boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in its general recommendation No. 19 recognizes forced marriages as a form of violence against women. In addition, the Convention on the Rights of the Child call for States parties to protect children from physical, mental and sexual abuse and exploitation through legislation and other social and educational measures. The obligation to protect children from violence includes protection from parents and caregivers. Article 34 of the Convention requires that States parties protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 78
- Paragraph text
- According to Save the Children in the 2004 edition of its annual publication, State of the World's Mothers, once born, children of girl brides are twice as likely to die before the age of 1 year as the children of a woman in her twenties. If they survive, the children are more likely than those born to older mothers to have poorer health care and inadequate nutrition as a result of the mother's poor feeding behaviour.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Older persons
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- The domestic servitude inherent to child marriage disempowers girls by denying them educational opportunities and the chance to form protective networks of friends and peers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Gender inequality also contributes to servile marriage through its impact on formal legal systems. Although a woman's right to choose if, when and whom to marry is recognized in international human rights law, and although the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other treaty bodies state that the minimum age of marriage should be 18 years, several countries with high rates of early marriage also have unequal laws of consent for boys and girls. Such laws reinforce and legalize the idea that marriage is suitable for girls earlier than for boys. Patriarchal laws and practices give women and girls less negotiating power around marriage and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- The leading cause of servile marriage is gender inequality, where girls and women are perceived, because of cultural or religious beliefs, to be commodities unable to make proper decisions about who and when to marry. Girls and women are forced to become brides because it is easier to control them and, in the case of girls, their virginity can be guaranteed and they have longer reproductive periods in which to produce more children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the victims of trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, concluded that there was a clear recognition in United Nations and regional agreements, as well as in national legislation, that many women and girls around the world lived under conditions where, owing to harmful patriarchal, traditional, customary and/or religious practices, they could not fully exercise their human rights to marry or refuse marriage; to full sexual autonomy; to refuse childbearing; to leave partners, including abusive partners, while retaining custody of their children, and to do so safely and without legal, economic, social, political and cultural repercussions (A/HRC/4/23, para. 38).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- The persistence of such harmful practices recently prompted the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child to work on their first joint general comment on harmful traditional practices, which is likely to be finalized in 2013.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- In its general recommendation No. 21, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers that the minimum age for marriage should be 18 years for both men and women. This age limit, which is in line with the definition of the child provided in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is also reflected in article 21 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- In its general comment No. 4, the Committee on the Rights of the Child strongly urges States parties to develop and implement legislation aimed at changing prevailing attitudes, and address gender roles and stereotypes that contribute to harmful traditional practices. It also calls upon States parties to protect adolescents from all harmful traditional practices, such as early marriage, and recommends that they review and, where necessary, reform their legislation and practice to increase the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years, for both girls and boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted resolution 1468 on forced marriages and child marriage. The Assembly defined forced marriage as "the union of two persons at least one of whom has not given their full consent to the marriage". It defined child marriage as "the union of two persons at least one of whom is under 18 years of age". Among other things, it urged the national parliaments of the Council of Europe member States to fix at or raise to 18 years the minimum statutory age of marriage for women and men, to make it compulsory for every marriage to be declared and entered by the competent authority in an official register, and to consider the possibility of dealing with acts of forced marriage as an independent criminal offence.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Article 21 (2) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states that child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys are to be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, is to be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years. Article 6 of the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa states that no marriage is to take place without the free and full consent of both parties, and requires States to enact appropriate national legislative measures to guarantee that the minimum age of marriage for women is to be 18 years.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Under article 24 (3) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States parties are required to take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women contains specific provisions in relation to forced marriage (article 16 (1) (b)) and early marriage (article 16 (2)). Child marriages, which are unions that involve at least one partner below the minimum legal age of marriage, constitute a form of forced marriage as the child is not in a position to consent. Article 16 of the Convention specifies that the betrothal and the marriage of a child are to have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, is to be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The Convention implicitly prohibits forced early marriage. Under article 1 (d), States parties are required to abolish any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Servile marriage affects both adults and children. Under international human rights law, a child cannot provide informed consent to a marriage. The marriage is therefore considered forced and falls under the slavery-like practices defined in the Convention. International human rights law, including the Convention, requires that a minimum age for marriage be established, with 18 years the recommended minimum age. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that, in some countries, the minimum age for marriage is lower than 18 years. She also recognizes that, in some countries, exceptions are made for marriage below the national minimum age. The Special Rapporteur strongly urges that rigorous measures be taken in such situations to ensure that the rights of the child are in no way violated by marriage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly called upon States to support and implement, including with dedicated resources, multisectoral policies and programmes that ended the practice of child and forced marriages and to ensure the provision of viable alternatives and institutional support, especially educational opportunities for girls, with an emphasis on keeping girls in school through post-primary education, including those who were already married or pregnant, ensuring physical access to education, including by establishing safe residential facilities, increasing financial incentives to families, promoting the empowerment of girls, improving educational quality and ensuring safe and hygienic conditions in schools.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly also urged States to ensure that efforts to enact and implement legislation to end child and forced marriages engaged all stakeholders and agents of change and to ensure that the information on the legislation against the practice was well known and generated social support for the enforcement of such laws and legislation. States were urged to support community workshops and discussion sessions to enable communities to collectively explore ways to prevent and address child and forced marriages, provide information through stakeholders credible to the community, such as medical personnel and local, community and religious leaders, regarding the harm associated with those marriages, give greater voice to girls and ensure consistence of message throughout the entire community, and encourage the much-needed strong engagement of men and boys.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 66/140, the General Assembly reiterated its call for an end to harmful traditional or customary practices, such as early and forced marriage, and called upon States to take appropriate measures to address the root factors of child and forced marriages, including by undertaking educational activities to raise awareness regarding the negative aspects of such practices. It urged all States to enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage was entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, and, in addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary, and to develop and implement comprehensive policies, plans of action and programmes for the survival, protection, development and advancement of the girl child in order to promote and protect the full enjoyment of her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including by making such plans an integral part of her total development process.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Another key area of focus of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, is child and forced marriage. The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery obligates Member States to take all "practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment" of, inter alia, any institution or practice which amounts to forced marriage, such as when a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment to her parents, guardians, family or another person or group; when a husband, his family or his clan transfers his wife to another person for value received or for any other reason; or the inheriting by another person of a woman on the death of her husband (see art. 1). Early and forced marriage can, under certain circumstances, constitute servile marriage or result in domestic servitude or other forms of slavery. The previous mandate holder drew links between child marriage and slavery, and pointed out that Member States were obliged to prohibit and eliminate slavery as a non-derogable and fundamental principle of international law. Child marriage is linked to the thematic issues of trafficking for forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation, migration and contemporary forms of slavery, which reinforces the need for cooperation among the respective mandate holders as part of a comprehensive multi-agency and multi-stakeholder effort to eradicate those practices from society, as women and girls in child and forced marriages may experience conditions within the marriage that meet "international legal definitions of slavery and slavery-like practices", including forced labour. Furthermore, "a potentially high proportion of child marriage cases appear to constitute the worst forms of child labour under the 1999 ILO Convention No. 182."
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- In addition to children in domestic servitude and other forms of slavery, the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the uneven implementation, and in some areas retrogression, of the human rights of women as guaranteed under international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Women are disproportionately affected by forced labour. Of the estimated 21 million people in situations of forced labour, 11.4 million (55 per cent) are women and girls.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the continued high prevalence of children in domestic servitude, bonded labour and other forms of slavery. Children in domestic work present a particular concern globally, in both developed and developing countries. Many child domestic workers are not only subject to exploitation and hazardous work, but often work in circumstances amounting to slavery or bonded labour in order to fulfil debts that they or their parents have incurred to the employer or to recruitment agents. An estimated 15.5 million children below the age of 18 are in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third-party employer, of whom 10.5 million are estimated to be child labourers, either because they are under the legal minimum working age or are working in hazardous conditions or conditions tantamount to slavery. Furthermore, girls outnumber boys and they face specific additional vulnerabilities in the context of migration and are more likely to end up being trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The Special Rapporteur is committed to working with the International Labour Organization, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders towards eliminating every vestige of child slavery in the world. Children should be at school or play, not at work; and the continued violation of their human rights should be an urgent global priority for Member States and the international community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In that regard, the Special Rapporteur will follow up on the key recommendations made by her predecessor for the elimination of all forms of domestic servitude. In her report to the Human Rights Council at its fifteenth session (A/HRC/15/20), the previous Special Rapporteur addressed the root causes of domestic servitude and its impact on women and children and made concrete recommendations for the monitoring and enforcement of labour standards. Besides the implementation of existing recommendations, which remains a key challenge, more research, notably qualitative reporting and situational analysis, is required on the often invisible workers in domestic servitude, including their existence in developed economies, which is often obscured.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur will continue to investigate, monitor and address, relying on the support of governments, other United Nations agencies and mechanisms, civil society organizations, trade unions, employers and activists, various contemporary manifestations of slavery involving children in agriculture, tobacco tilling, cotton picking, entertainment, construction, mining and quarrying.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 24/3, the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, will examine and report on all contemporary forms of slavery and slavery-like practices, in particular those defined in the Slavery Convention of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956, as well as all other issues covered previously by the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. She will also continue to promote the effective implementation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the 2014 Protocol thereto, as well as ILO Convention No. 189 (2011) and Recommendation No. 201 concerning decent work for domestic workers, which represent a significant advance in the international legal framework protecting the rights of domestic workers, including the right to education for child domestic workers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 98
- Paragraph text
- [Normative action at the international level reflects has long been a reflection of the indolence of many States to provide effective protection against domestic servitude at the national level. The Special Rapporteur therefore welcomes the fact that the ILO finally resolved to adopt a convention on decent standards for domestic work and hopes that recommendations contained in this report will be reflected in the Convention. The Special Rapporteur recommends that:] States should consider ratifying ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No. 182) and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and withdraw reservations excluding domestic workers from the scope of application of conventions to which they are a state party.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph