Child Marriage Banned In Guatemala But 'Cultural Shift' Required, Advocates Say

Guatemala has raised the minimum age for marriage to 18, but women’s rights campaigners said enforcing the new law would be a challenge in a country where nearly one-third of girls are currently married by that age.

The law, approved by Congress earlier this month by 87 votes to 15, raised the minimum marriage age from 14 for girls and 16 for boys, but said 16-year-old girls would still be able to marry with a judge’s permission under some circumstances.
Christa Stewart, of women’s rights charity Equality Now, hailed the law as “a really important step in recognising the full potential of girls and reframing how girls should be treated in society”.
“It requires a cultural shift to fully implement the law, the training of judges, and reaching remote rural areas,” Stewart told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.
Rights campaigners say achieving the cultural change the law envisages will be a particular challenge for Guatemala’s Maya indigenous communities, who live in poor rural areas where child marriage is most common.
Unicef says 7% of Guatemalan girls are married by the age of 15, and 30% by 18.