Marriage prohibition
Throughout the world, there have been many prohibitions on those who can undergo marriage. These are for a variety of reasons, including the grounds of age, sex, consanguinity, coercion, previous or existing marital status, as well as religion, race, caste or disability. A marriage which is prohibited is called a void marriage; there are also categories of marriage which are voidable marriages, which may be anulled on request.
Many of these restrictions are enforced by law; however, some may be prohibited not by law but by religious or cultural customs.
Marriageable age
Marriageable age is the minimum legal age of marriage. Age and other prerequisites to marriage vary between jurisdictions, but in the vast majority of jurisdictions, the marriageable age as a right is set at the age of majority. Nevertheless, most jurisdictions allow marriage at a younger age with parental or judicial approval, especially if the female is pregnant. Among most indigenous cultures, people marry at fifteen, the age of sexual maturity for both the male and the female. In industrialized cultures, the age of marriage is most commonly 18 years old, but there are variations, and the marriageable age should not be confused with the age of majority or the age of consent, though they may be the same.
The 55 parties to the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages have agreed to specify a minimum marriageable age by statute law‚ to override customary, religious, tribal laws and traditions. When the marriageable age under a law of a religious community is lower than that under the law of the land, the state law prevails. However, some religious communities do not accept the supremacy of state law in this respect, which may lead to child marriage or forced marriage.
The 123 parties to the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery have agreed to adopt a prescribed "suitable" minimum age for marriage. In many developing countries, the official age prescriptions stand as mere guidelines. UNICEF, the United Nations children's organization, regards a marriage of a minor (legal child), a person below the adult age, as child marriage and a violation of rights.[1]
Until recently, the minimum marriageable age for females was lower in many jurisdictions than for males, on the premise that females mature at an earlier age than males. This law has been viewed by some to be discriminatory, so that in many countries the marriageable age of females has been raised to equal that of males.[2]
Same-sex marriage
In most cultures, marriage has traditionally been restricted to marriage between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage or same-gender marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex or gender. As of 2025,[update] marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 billion people (20% of the world's population). The most recent jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage is Thailand.
Same-sex marriage is legally recognized in a large majority of the world's developed countries; notable exceptions are Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the Czech Republic. Adoption rights are not necessarily covered, though most states with same-sex marriage allow those couples to jointly adopt as other married couples can. Some countries, such as Nigeria and Russia, restrict advocacy for same-sex marriage.[3] A few of these are among the 35 countries (as of 2023) that constitutionally define marriage to prevent marriage between couples of the same sex, with most of those provisions enacted in recent decades as a preventative measure.
Consanguine marriage
Consanguine marriage is marriage between individuals who are closely related. Though it may involve incest, it implies more than the sexual nature of incest. In a clinical sense, marriage between two family members who are second cousins or closer qualifies as consanguineous marriage. This is based on the gene copies their offspring may receive.[4] Though these unions are still prevalent in some communities, as seen across the Greater Middle East region, many other populations have seen a great decline in intra-family marriages.[5]
Forced marriage
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later forced to stay in the marriage against their will.[6]
A forced marriage differs from an arranged marriage, in which both parties presumably consent to the assistance of their parents or a third party such as a matchmaker in finding and choosing a spouse. There is often a continuum of coercion used to compel a marriage, ranging from outright physical violence to subtle psychological pressure.[7]
Though now widely condemned by international opinion, forced marriages still take place in various cultures across the world, particularly in parts of South Asia and Africa. Some scholars object to use of the term "forced marriage" because it invokes the consensual legitimating language of marriage (such as husband/wife) for an experience that is precisely the opposite.[8] A variety of alternative terms have been proposed, including forced conjugal association and conjugal slavery.[9][10]
The United Nations views forced marriage as a form of human rights abuse, since it violates the principle of the freedom and autonomy of individuals. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that a person's right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage is central to their life and dignity, and their equality as a human being.[11] The Roman Catholic Church deems forced marriage grounds for granting an annulment—for a marriage to be valid both parties must give their consent freely. The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery also prohibits marriage without right to refusal by both parties[12] and requires a minimum age for marriage to prevent this.[13] Similarly, the International Labour Organization recognizes forced marriage as a form of modern slavery.[14]
Polygamy and bigamy
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Remarriage
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Religion
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Racial and caste discrimination
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Eugenics
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Voidable marriage
Sexually transmitted disease
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Non-consummation
TBD
References
- ↑ "Child marriage". UNICEF DATA. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ↑ Jones, Jeffrey M. (2006-06-22). "Ideal Age for Marriage: 25 for Women and 27 for Men". Gallup.com. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
- ↑ VERPOEST, LIEN (2017). "The End of Rhetorics: LGBT policies in Russia and the European Union". Studia Diplomatica. 68 (4): 3–20. ISSN 0770-2965. JSTOR 26531664.
- ↑ Hamamy, Hanan (November 22, 2011). "Consanguineous marriages". Journal of Community Genetics. 3 (3): 185–92. doi:10.1007/s12687-011-0072-y. PMC 3419292. PMID 22109912.
- ↑ Heidari F, Dastgiri S, Tajaddini N, et al. Prevalence and Risk Factors of Consanguineous Marriage. European Journal of General Medicine [serial online]. December 2014;11(4):248-255. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 4, 2016.
- ↑ "Arranged/Forced Marriage". Unchained At Last. Archived from the original on 8 October 2022. Retrieved 6 October 2022. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Sharp, Nicola. "Forced Marriage in the UK: A scoping study on the experience of women from Middle Eastern and North East African Communities" (PDF). Refuge. London: 6, 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2017. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Bunting, Annie. "'Forced Marriage' in Conflict Situations: Researching and Prosecuting Old Harms and New Crimes". Canadian Journal of Human Rights: 179. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
... the term marriage should be avoided because the crime in Sierra Leone was 'one of sexual slavery, poorly veiled by the euphemism marriage.'
Unknown parameter|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Jenni Millbank (7 February 2011). "Forced Marriage and the Exoticization of Gendered Harms in United States Asylum Law". Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. SSRN 1757283.
- ↑ Dauvergne, Catherine (2 March 2010). "Forced Marriage as a Harm in Domestic and International Law". Modern Law Review. 73: 57–88. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.2009.00784.x. hdl:10453/10487. SSRN 1563842. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ "Ethics – Forced Marriages: Introduction". BBC. 1 January 1970. Archived from the original on 3 September 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, Article 1, (c)
- ↑ Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, Article 2
- ↑ "Global Estimates of Modern Slavery" (PDF). International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation. 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2023. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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