A/HRC/29/40 Human Rights Committee19 have recommended that States should prohibit polygamy on the grounds that it contravenes women’s right to equality with men and can have serious emotional and financial consequences for women and their dependants.20 However, there are national civil codes that legalize polygamous marriage, early and/or forced marriage and temporary marriage. The Working Group advocates the repeal of these codes. Among the countries that deem such marriages to discriminate against women and girls, some consider them void and others merely voidable. In all cases, the legal solution must protect the rights of women and girls, who remain the victims of these harmful marriages. Their rights to subsistence, to property, including land and inheritance, to a place of residence, to custody of children and to remarry must be guaranteed. 27. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has recommended the prohibition and annulment of these marriages, which violate the dignity of women, and calls for safeguards and guarantees to protect the rights of women and girls living in such families. 21 Invalidating an early marriage protects the minor spouses by restoring their single status so that they are deemed never to have been married, rather than divorced, and by cancelling all financial or property transactions linked to the marriage.22 2. Women’s right to equality in the family 28. All legal definitions of the family should include the right to equality, de jure and de facto, of women and girls within the family. Full equality between women and men, and girls and boys, is a requirement of international human rights law and constitutes a right of women that is vital for the well-being of the family and for society as a whole. 29. International human rights law guarantees gender equality in the family, including when marriage is entered into, during marriage and at its dissolution, as set out in article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women establishes the obligation of States to ensure gender equality in all matters relating to marriage and family relations, including in respect of the decision whether to marry, the free choice of spouse, rights and responsibilities as parents, the decision on the number and spacing of children, and personal rights as husband and wife. Similarly, articles 1 to 3 of the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages require States to ensure gender equality regarding consent to marriage, to specify a legal minimum age for marriage and to register marriages. 30. When the rules governing family relations discriminate against women, they violate international human rights law. Furthermore, considerations linked to protecting and strengthening the family may not be invoked to justify forms of family that do not meet the requirement for equality between men and women and girls and boys. The lack of equality in these forms of marriage leads women and girls to experience discrimination, making them vulnerable to domestic violence. 19 20 21 22 GE.15-07003 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 28, para. 24. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 21, para. 14. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 21, paras. 14, 16 and 36–39. Marsha A. Freeman, Christine Chinkin, Beate Rudolf, The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: A Commentary, Article 16, 2012, p. 437. 9