The YWCA recognizes that child, early and forced marriage is a human rights issue that affect the rights of women and girls. It is a form of gender based violence, specifically sexual violence, perpetrated on young girls who have not yet achieve sexual maturity and are below the legal age of consent for all other transactions. In fact, according to the definition used by UNICEF, they are still children
Today in Trinidad and Tobago, the three pieces of legislation provide for marriages to girls below the legal age of consent.
Child marriage is an unacceptable violation of the rights of girls and young women with long term negative consequences on their health and well-being. Child marriage denies girls their childhood, disrupting their education, limiting their ability to participate in economic and social spheres, and jeopardizing their health � including increasing their risk of experiencing or dying from complications from pregnancy or birth and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Child marriages also make girls and young women more vulnerable to domestic violence and sexual violence.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the legal age of consent is 18 years. Below this age, young adults are unable to vote and the Children's Authority Act (Chapter 46:10) defines a child as a person under the age of 18 years. It is therefore inconsistent that the laws of Trinidad and Tobago sanction and facilitate actions that are harmful to children.
Call to Action:
1. Implement an urgent review/amendment of all relevant legislation to ensure the minimum age for marriage of girls is 18 years
2. Support achievement of UN SDG 5 on achieving gender equality, specifically Target 5.3 to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage.
3. Invest in education and economic empowerment of women and girls as preventive measures to early, child and forced marriage
4. Implement health, social and other programmes to support girls in marriages and to facilitate appropriate legislative measures to terminate the marriage if desired.
YWCA of T&T 2016