So marriage for under 18's is child abuse [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[averylongtimeago]

metro.co.uk/2021/06/11/england-minimum-legal-age-to-marry-set-to-be-raised-to-18-14755845/?ito=facebook%7Csocial%7Cmetroukfacebook&fbclid=IwAR31LtTF8bXW-puruYW-sciIFpLoYsv0KsLptgQNJi2lZdfSFzQKRDdaWnc

So if teenage marriage is child abuse, how can teens consent to medical treatment?

Sorry about the Metro link!

In the article it states that Bangladesh defended the age at which children can get married as 16 as it is the same as the UK. This isn’t just about teenagers in the UK, it’s about protecting teenage girls in Bangladesh. The campaign Girls Not Brides has been working on this for years. If a girl can’t get married until she’s 18 she’ll hopefully stay in education longer which leads to better outcomes for both her & her subsequent children.

There are many cases where women have been unable to get a divorce.

And particularly in the case of religious marriages, eg Jewish women who have been denied a get. www.thejc.com/news/uk/refusing-to-give-a-get-to-be-recognised-as-domestic-abuse-government-confirms-1.513033

I support this change. The numbers involved are tiny, but it makes a statement about how we view marriage in this country. It is a serious financial and legal commitment which should only be made by adults. Parents’ opinions are irrelevant, the only people who can consent to a marriage are the two people exchanging vows. How do you teach a teenage girl that the decision to marry (or not) is entirely hers when the law says something different?

I don't understand the position of a lot of posters tbh.

It makes very little difference to us.

It makes a big statement about supporting the push of the WHO and other major orgs to press for a minimum marriage age of 18 overseas.

The question isn't why, it's why not?

@LizziesTwin

In the article it states that Bangladesh defended the age at which children can get married as 16 as it is the same as the UK. This isn’t just about teenagers in the UK, it’s about protecting teenage girls in Bangladesh. The campaign Girls Not Brides has been working on this for years. If a girl can’t get married until she’s 18 she’ll hopefully stay in education longer which leads to better outcomes for both her & her subsequent children.

This is a terrible reason to write a law. You make policy and law on the merits of the jurisdiction or state where they apply, not as some sort of performative solidarity.

The idea that international NGOs can come up with one standard for best practise in every part of the world, with vastly different conditions and lifestyles, seem unlikely on the face of it. And changing the laws in order to force changes in social values - in this case to be in line with the socal values of outsiders - seems a dangerous route to me.

To be fair the United Nations is based on the idea of universality of nations.

As are various declarations such as the declaration of human rights, the Geneva convention and the like.

It isn't a very new idea.

@lakesummer

To be fair the United Nations is based on the idea of universality of nations.

As are various declarations such as the declaration of human rights, the Geneva convention and the like.

It isn't a very new idea.

The UN doesn't try to set one set of laws for every country, though! The idea that you could sensibly have the same set of regulations on, most things in a country like the UK, or Mongolia, or in the jungles of South America, would be completely crazy.

People's work and lifestyles are very different in different parts of the world. And not ever place has to be a modern industrial economy, where people stay in education and put off work and families, in order to be acceptable.

'The idea that international NGOs can come up with one standard for best practise in every part of the world, with vastly different conditions and lifestyles, seem unlikely on the face of it'

Children/ young people are children/ young people wherever they are.

This is cultural relativism I think?

It makes no odds to us really. Showing support for the efforts to reduce/ prevent child marriage overseas is a good thing to do.

There still is child marriage in the USA btw it's not restricted to one continent or region.

'People's work and lifestyles are very different in different parts of the world. And not ever place has to be a modern industrial economy, where people stay in education and put off work and families, in order to be acceptable.'

This is about child marriage though. The impact on girls of marriage before 18 is contained in these links.

Unicef
data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/

United Nations
www.un.org/youthenvoy/2016/03/new-un-initiative-aims-to-protect-millions-of-girls-from-child-marriage/

WHO
www.girlsnotbrides.org/articles/world-health-assembly-recognises-we-must-address-early-marriage-its-now-time-for-who-action/

You are saying that changing age of marriage to 18 in some countries would be detrimental to girls and young women, unless I've misunderstood.

Bump - as someone has started another thread just to make FWRs aware there is an existing discussion already.