An Unspoken Consequence: How is Climate Change Increasing the Risk of Early and Forced Marriages?

In today’s global climate, over 700 million women are married before they reach the age of eighteen. According to UNICEF, more than 250 million women were married before their fifteenth birthday. [1]

Child marriage is defined as a marriage in which at least one of the parties are under the age of eighteen. The decision for marriage is most often made by the parents but is sometimes made by the child themselves. The decision is influenced by a variety of factors, all of which are exacerbated by the inequalities that are faced by those living in extreme poverty. These factors include, but are not limited to, lack of income generating resources, access to education, social pressures and cultural norms, sexual harassment and intimidation, and the practice of dowry and brideprice[2] For many girls, the decision to get married is one of necessity, not necessarily choice. They, along with their parents, see marriage as the only option to the possibility of access to basic human rights, such as food and shelter.

The interconnection between those living in poverty and child marriage is extremely strong. Girls who live in communities that experience extreme poverty often lack opportunities to break such cycle, for example, through education. According to UNFPA, girls “with only a primary education are twice as likely to marry or enter into a union under eighteen as are those with secondary or higher education. And girls with no education are three times as likely to marry before eighteen as those with secondary or higher education.”[3] Girls often face extreme challenges to have access to educational opportunities, such as gender discrimination, lack of resources, and financial burdens. Families are more likely to send their sons to school and require their daughters to stay home and work or, in most cases, get married.[4]p

Forced marriage violates the fundamental right to freely consent to a marriage. This right is outlined in several human rights instruments. Article 16(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms that “[m]arriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”[5] Article 10(1) of the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights reiterates the right to consensual marriage. [6]Article 23 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights similarly provides that, “[n]o marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”[7] Early marriage, where one or both parties are below the age of legal consent, is addressed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recommends eighteen as the appropriate age of consent. [8] Even despite these instruments, as well as several country specific laws that outlaw child marriage, cultural norms and impoverishment undermine the legislation. 

The changes in the climate system, specifically global warming, impose an increasing burden on countries that are trying to protect those that are most vulnerable to human rights abuses. The changing precipitation patterns, which cause droughts or flooding, have negative direct and indirect impacts on food security, migration, conflicts, and job opportunities.[9] On most occasions, those affected by the impacts of such changes are those that are most vulnerable, which include but are not limited to women and girls.[10] One example of the impact that women and girls of the communities’ face, is they are often responsible for obtaining water, fuel and food for their families which has become an increased obstacle due to climate change. Women and girls must travel longer distances impacting their safety, opportunities for education, and overall health.

Governments must do a variety of things to ensure that these factors are mitigated. First, governments must “ensure that their response to climate change includes specific attention and monitoring of the impact of climate change on women and girls, including any risk that climate change impacts will exacerbate or undermine efforts to end child marriage.”[11] Additionally, governments should craft their responses to climate change in ways that are reflective of the impacts on the vulnerability it creates for young women and girls to early and forced marriage.

Hannah Ditchik is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLV.

This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.
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[1] See UNICEF, Ending Child Marriage: Progress and Prospects 2 (2014), https://www.unicef.org/ media/files/ Child_Marriage_Report_7_17_LR..pdf. [https://perma.cc/EB8E-EAVN].

[2] See Caroline S. Archambault, Ethnographic Empathy and the Social Context of Rights: “Rescuing” Maasai Girls from Early Marriage, 113 AM. ANTHRO. 632, 633 (2011) [hereinafter Archambault, Ethnographic Empathy].

[3] Edilberto Loaiza & Sylvia Wong, United Nations Population Fund, Marrying Too Young: End Child Marriage 35 (2012), http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/MarryingTooYoung.pdf.

[4] See Human Rights Watch, Marry Before Your House is Swept Away: Child Marriage in Bangladesh, 6 (2015), https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/bangladesh0615_web.pdf.

[5] G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948).

[6] See G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI) A, International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Dec. 16 1966).

[7] See id.

[8] See G.A. Res 1386 (XIV), Convention on the Rights of the Child (1959).

[9] See Kirk R. Smith et al., Human Health: Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits, in 709 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability 741-42 (C.B. Field et al. eds., 2014).

[10] See Comm. on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Gen. Rec. No. 37 on Gender-Related Dimensions of Disaster Risk Reduction in the Context of Climate Change, U.N. Doc. CEDAW/C/GC/37 (2018).

[11] Christie Mcleod, Heather Barr & Katharina Rall, Does Climate Change Increate the Risk of Child Marriage? A Look at What We Know- and What We Don’t- With Lessons from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Colum. J. of Gender & Law, 2021, at 142.