Raising the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18 comes into effect on Monday in England and Wales, under a law passed last year to protect minors from forced marriages.
Even with the consent of the parents, it is now forbidden for a minor to marry or form a civil union, and this also applies to purely religious or “traditional” ceremonies which have no legal value.
The law also protects British minors or those residing in England or Wales who are married abroad.
Until now, marriage was authorized from the age of 16, provided that the children concerned have parental authorization.
While it is difficult to assess the extent of the phenomenon, many unions involving children being hidden, in 2021, 118 cases of minors had been reported to the Forced Marriage Unit, responsible for advising and helping the victims of these forced unions.
Young girls are the main victims. According to the Department of Justice, 119 girls under the age of 18 were forcibly married in 2018 in England and Wales, compared to 28 boys.
“This law will better protect vulnerable young people by cracking down on forced marriages in our society,” said Justice Minister Dominic Raab.
A person convicted of arranging the marriage of a child faces up to seven years in prison.
“It is one of the most successful laws on child marriage in the world and it protects every child born in this country from the dangers and the damage caused by being married without having consented to it,” s’ is congratulated the Conservative MP Pauline Latham, at the origin of the law, in a column published Monday in the Daily Express.
“Today is really a moment of celebration,” reacted to the BBC Payzee Mahmod, an activist and herself the victim of a forced marriage in the early 2000s. She said she was “very happy and very moved” by the “very important steps this country has taken to protect children.”