Tag : End Child Marriage
10 States Later: Ending Child Marriage in the United States
Michigan recently became the 10th state to ban child marriage, a milestone victory! In this webinar, Casey Swegman, Director of Public Policy, and Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager, discuss this significant milestone and Tahirih’s vision for ending child marriage in the next 40 states.
U.S. States Fail to Protect Children’s Rights
Author: Human Rights Watch
Published: September 2022
A new interactive scorecard from Human Rights Watch assessed state laws across the country to see how well each state has done in implementing the standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The laws address four issues impacting children: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor, and juvenile justice. No state received better than a “C” grade, and the United States remains the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention. Read more.
State Regulations Are Failing Our Children: An Analysis of Child Marriage Laws in the United States
Author: Rachel L. Schuman
Publication: May 31, 2019
Laws allowing for child marriage have a long history in U.S. and common law, but are currently receiving increased scrutiny from advocates seeking to prevent the documented harms of early marriage. This article examines whether Congress could legally promote the implementation of a uniform marriage age across states using precedent set in South Dakota v. Dole. Read more.
Protection Versus Rights: Age of Marriage Versus Age of Sexual Consent
Authors: Suzanne Petroni, Madhumita Das, & Susan M Sawyer
Publication: December 5, 2018
As many governments worldwide have raised the legal age of marriage to 18 years, some are also considering raising the age of sexual consent. Without close-in-age exemptions, arguments to align the legal age of sexual consent with that of marriage would restrict the ability of adolescents to legally have sex. The authors find that, because the consideration to marry and to have sex are very different, the minimum ages need not be aligned.
CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE UNITED STATES: A Serious Problem With a Simple First-Step Solution
Author: Tahirih Justice Center
Published: November 8th, 2016
Child marriage remains a serious problem in present-day America that has devastating, lifelong consequences. Read this backgrounder to learn more about the prevalence of child marriage in the United States, the laws that allow it to persist, and the ways in which it denies young people the opportunity to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.
