Tonga raises age of marriage to 18 with Save the Children urging other Pacific Island nations to follow
Tonga has raised the legal age of marriage to 18 from 15, with Save the Children urging other Pacific Island nations to follow suit and to invest more in child protection and the future of girls.
Previously children aged 15-17 could marry in Tonga with parental consent and about one in 10 girls in Tonga were married before the age of 18.
But last year the country’s Women and Children Crisis Centre submitted a formal written submission seeking to raise Tonga’s legal marriage age to 18 in line with international rights standards. Tonga’s government passed a new law this week enacting the change.
Save the Children welcomed Tonga’s decision, highlighting that childhood should be a time for learning, playing and a time when children feel safe. Children represent about 40% of Tonga’s 105,000 population.
Despite progress to reduce child marriage worldwide, around 12 million girls still marry each year and there are an estimated 640 million girls or women who have been married in childhood [1]. Childhood marriage exposes girls to risks, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, domestic violence, early pregnancies and school drop-out.
Across the Pacific [2], child marriage remains a significant challenge, with deep inequalities and slow progress in some nations, despite a commitment by countries under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end child marriage by 2030.
In Papua New Guinea, nearly 27% of girls marry before age 18 with rates remaining largely unchanged since the early 1990s [3]. Over 1 in 5 girls in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu [4] are married before the age of 18.
In Solomon Islands, Save the Children, along with partners, is campaigning alongside children through the ‘Make it 18’ campaign to have the legal age of marriage raised to 18. Child marriage is currently legal at 15 with parental or judicial consent.
Caregivers there said girls were vulnerable to early marriage partly because bride prices were an attractive means of income for families. Bride prices can be paid in money, property, or other forms of wealth by a groom or his family to the bride's family.
Save the Children is also calling for greater public investment in children’s services across the Pacific to be prioritised.
Kim Koch, Save the Children’s Pacific Regional Director, said:
“Girls who are married young are robbed of their childhoods and of their futures. This move by Tonga to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 is an important example of positive change for children in the Pacific. It will better support girls’ futures including their education and any economic opportunities that also have an impact on their families and communities.
“This new law will strengthen protection for children and young people, especially girls, making their homes, schools and communities safer and enable them to contribute to Tonga’s development goals.”
Save the Children is calling for more public investment in children’s services in Tonga to support social and economic development and urges the government to ensure financial mechanisms for reform are included in the national budget.
ENDS
*UNICEF 2024
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