Peer-reviewed article
Child marriages - yesterday, today, tomorrow?
Suzana Kraljić ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This article examines child marriage as a human rights violation affecting children under 18, discussing its long-term consequences for gender equality, health, and education. The author analyzes international and comparative legal approaches to abolishing child marriage and critiques Slovenia's current legal regime, which sets the marriageable age at 18 but permits exceptions.
Key points
- Child marriage is defined as a formal or informal union involving a person under 18 years old
- Child marriage is associated with violations of human rights, particularly children's rights
- Consequences of child marriage are long-term and relate to gender equality, health, and education
- Many countries, including Slovenia, have raised the marriageable age to 18 but still allow exceptions
- The article critically analyzes Slovenia's current legal regime on child marriage
Limitations
This is a legal analysis article that does not present empirical data on prevalence, outcomes, or the effectiveness of interventions to prevent child marriage. It cannot tell us about the scale of child marriage in Slovenia or the impact of legal reforms on actual practices.
Abstract
Child marriage is a formal or informal union involving a child or person under the age of 18. It is currently associated with violations of human rights, particularly the rights of children. The consequences of child marriage are long-term and relate to gender equality, health, and education, among others. Therefore, efforts are being made in national and international jurisdictions to eliminate harmful (traditional) practices. While individual countries have raised the marriageable age to 18, many still allow exceptions. Slovenia is one such example. In this article, the author analyzes the approach to the abolition of child marriage at the international and comparative law levels and is particularly critical of the current Slovenian regime.