Peer-reviewed article
Decolonising and decriminalising child marriage in Africa
Conrad Nyamutata ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This academic paper examines child marriage across Africa, focusing on the debate between criminalising the practice and respecting customary and religious law. The author argues that Western criminal justice approaches may not be appropriate for addressing child marriage in African contexts. The paper advocates for decolonising approaches to child marriage policy while maintaining protection of children's rights, rather than simply importing Western criminal law frameworks.
Key points
- Child marriage prevalence is often attributed to cultural practices and gender inequality across African countries
- Tension exists between statutory law and religious/customary law in addressing child marriage
- Criminalisation efforts typically target male offenders and are driven by Western deterrence-based penological theory
- Not all African countries have criminalised child marriage, showing no universal legal approach on the continent
- The author critiques 'popular punitivism' as a Western import that may not account for social and geographical differences in Africa
Limitations
This is a theoretical and policy critique paper rather than empirical research. It does not provide data on child marriage prevalence, outcomes of criminalisation policies, or evidence of what alternative approaches would be effective in protecting children.
Abstract
Abstract Child marriages, often attributed to culture and gender inequality, are prevalent across Africa. Several countries have moved to criminalise the practice. At the core of the criminalisation debate are the fundamental tensions between statutory (state) law on the one hand, and religious and customary law on the other. The growing momentum towards punishment, targeted almost invariably at male offenders, is meant to address the conflict between cultural practices that lead to child marriage and the protection of children's rights. However, some countries have not criminalised child marriage. Thus, the outlawry of child marriages is not universal on the continent. The agitation towards criminalisation—I describe this as ‘popular punitvism’ ‐ as a panacea, is animated by Western penological justifications, principally, deterrence. However, Western criminological and penological theories may not fully account for a phenomenon in other social and geographical spaces. The paper argues for decolonising and decriminalising child marriages in Africa but not legalising it.