Forced Marriage Overseas: Guinea
Overview
Individuals from the United States may face substantial challenges if trying to avoid and /or escape forced marriages in Guinea. Violence against women and girls – including forced marriage and female genital mutilation – is still widespread, and women’s rights remain generally unprotected.1
For further information and guidance for individuals from the U.S. that are facing or fleeing a forced marriage in Guinea, please contact the Forced Marriage Initiative.
Marriage in Guinea
Despite the existence of certain legal protections, in practice, forced marriages are common, and women and girls have few rights and options when entering into or attempting to leave a marriage in Guinea. Guinea’s Civil Code only recognizes civil marriage,2 and a civil ceremony must occur prior to any religious or customary marriage ceremony. However this requirement is rarely followed, leading to situations where many marriages are not recognized by the state or legally enforceable in court.3 Although the legal minimum age for marriage is 18 for men and 17 for women,4 children are often betrothed or married off in early childhood.5 It is unclear if there are legal penalties for perpetrators of forced marriages, and an individual that consummates a marriage with a child can only penalized if the victim is under the age of 13. According to a recent study by the UN Population Fund, 63% of Guinean women 20-24 years old were married before the age of 18,6 with often significant age differences between young women and their spouses.7 Polygamy and female genital mutilation, while prohibited by the Civil and Penal Codes,8 occur frequently in Guinea,9 and the country has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation in the world.10
While annulment and divorce are permitted under the Civil Code, and under religious and customary practices, it is much harder for women to dissolve a marriage.11 Women are generally unable to get custody of their children if they are over seven years old.12 Marriage disputes are often mediated by informal authorities in the community, leading to situations where women are pressured to accept the settlements proposed by their families and community elders.13
Forced marriage in Guinea is common and widespread.14 The primary victims of forced marriage are very young girls from rural and conservative areas.15 Many Guinean ethnic groups (particularly those with a strong clan structure) have strict rules regarding marriage after the death of a spouse, including the expectation that the sister of a deceased wife will marry her brother-in-law and that the brother of a deceased husband will marry his sister-in-law.16
Potential Risks and Protections in Country
It is unlikely that women or girls facing forced marriages could access adequate protections in Guinea. NGO’s are working with the government to combat forced and child marriage in Guinea, but progress on these issues has been slow. Guinean tradition calls for domestic conflicts to be resolved within the family, so women subjected to a forced marriages will generally not file a report or otherwise seek legal protection. Further, the judicial system is generally not responsive to such situations, and investigations of forced marriages (when complaints are actually filed) are handled poorly. There has not been a single conviction around forced marriage, largely due to the fact that many judges do not take these claims seriously.17
Special Challenges in Returning to the United States
The ongoing Ebola crisis has made travel around and exit from Guinea challenging. Please check the entry and exit requirements for Guinea for the most up to date information.
- The Tahirih Justice Center Forced Marriage Initiative
We are available to help individuals from the United States who are facing or fleeing forced marriage in Guinea, including providing phone, text, and email support, connecting with the U.S. government and local resources, and coordinating shelter and services back in the United States.
- The U.S. State Department
The State Department is available to assist U.S. citizens that are victims of forced marriage with replacement of travel documents and return travel to the United States. However, in Guinea, State Department response may be hampered by the current Ebola outbreak. For updated information and travel alerts, please visit the department’s webpage on international travel in Guinea. - U.S. Embassy Conakry
Contact the embassy in the case of an emergency.
Tel: +224-67-10-43-11
Email: conconakry@state.gov
REFERENCES
1 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014); US Department of State, Guinea 2013 Human Rights Report, at 22, available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220332.pdf; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2014, at 124, available at http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2014_web_0.pdf.
2 Guinea Civil Code, art. 201.
3 LandInfo, Country of Origin Information Centre (an independent unit of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration), Guinée: Le mariage forcé, (May 25, 2011), available at http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1839/1/1839_1.pdf (last visited Feb. 19, 2014) (translated using Google Translate); Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
4 Guinea Civil Code, art. 280; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
5 Department of State, 2012 Human Rights Reports: Guinea, (2013), available at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/af/204127.htm (citing to the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices).
6 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
7 LandInfo, Country of Origin Information Centre (an independent unit of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration), Guinée: Le mariage forcé, (May 25, 2011), available at http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1839/1/1839_1.pdf (last visited Feb. 19, 2014)
8 Guinea Civil Code, art. 315; Guinea Penal Code, art. 305
9 UNICEF, Early Marriage: A Harmful Traditional Practice (2005), at 19.
10 Department of State, 2012 Human Rights Reports: Guinea, (2013), available at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/af/204127.htm
11 United States Agency of International Development, USAID Country Profile – Property Rights and Resource Governance: Guinea, (October 2010), http://usaidlandtenure.net/sites/default/files/country-profiles/full-reports/USAID_Land_Tenure_Guinea_Profile.pdf (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
12 Guinea Civil Code, art. 359.
13 Imani Jaafar-Mohammad, Esq. and Charlie Lehmann, Women’s Rights in Islam Regarding Marriage and Divorce, William Mitchell Journal of Law and Practice (April 11, 2011), available at http://wmlawandpractice.com/2011/04/11/women%E2%80%99s-rights-in-islam-regarding-marriage-and-divorce/ (last visited January 30, 2014).
14 U.S. Department of State, 2012 Human Rights Reports: Guinea, (April 19, 2013), http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2012/af/204127.htm (citing to the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices).
15 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
16 Africa for Women’s Rights, Guinea-Conakry, http://www.africa4womensrights.org/public/Dossier_of_Claims/Guinea-Conakry-UK.pdf (last visited Feb. 19, 2014); United Nations, Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Guinea, (July 2-20, 2001), http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw25years/content/english/CONCLUDING_COMMENTS/Guinea/Guinea-CO-1-3.pdf (last visited Apr. 10, 2014).
17 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Guinea: Prevalence of forced marriage; legislation affecting forced marriages; state protection; ability of women to refuse a forced marriage, (October 9, 2012), http://www.refworld.org/docid/50aa23a52.html (last visited Feb. 19, 2014); American Bar Association, Access to Justice Assessment for Guinea, (April 2012), http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/directories/roli/guinea/guinea_access_to_justice_assessment_2012.authcheckdam.pdf (last visited Feb. 19, 2014).
