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The efforts to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 in Northern Ireland have been slow-moving, leading to over 100 children being married during this waiting period. At least 116 children, with 91 of them being teenage girls, have been married in Northern Ireland since work began over three years ago on new laws to increase the minimum age. It is currently legal for 16 and 17-year-olds in Northern Ireland to marry with parental or guardian permission, a stark contrast to England, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland where the minimum age is 18.
The push for changing the law to raise the minimum age to 18 gained traction after a public consultation showed strong support for the change. Stormont’s then finance minister Conor Murphy announced in July 2022 that work on new laws would begin following the consultation results. The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Chris Quinn, advocated for the swift implementation of the new laws to protect vulnerable children from the harms associated with child marriage.
Data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI) does not specify the community background of the children married. However, the consultation on marriage reform indicated that a majority of under 18s married by the Catholic Church belong to the traveller community. Lisa Hogg from the Craigavon Travellers Support Committee (CTSC) noted that while early marriage is still a cultural norm in some traveller families, there is a positive shift with younger women expressing a preference to marry at a later age, around 19 or 20.
Recent developments by the Northern Ireland Executive in September 2024 have paved the way for legislation to raise the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership to 18. This change would also criminalize the arrangement of under-age marriages and civil partnerships. The Department of Finance, led by John O’Dowd, is in the final stages of drafting the bill, which is expected to be presented to the Northern Ireland Assembly for consideration and approval during the 2025/26 term. The proposed law aims to align with international human rights standards and protect children from potential abuse and violations of their rights
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