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.

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.

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.

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.