Child marriages and early unions: inequality and poverty among women, girls and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean

Child, early and forced marriages and unions are defined as a union in which at least one of the parties is under the age of 18. The overwhelming majority of formal and informal child marriages and unions involve girls, although in some cases their male spouses are also under 18. As stated in the Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices, and Human Rights Council resolution 29/8 of 2 July 2015, on strengthening efforts to prevent and eliminate child, early and forced marriage, child marriage is considered a form of forced marriage, as it is practiced without the full, free and informed consent of one or both parties (United Nations, 2015b). The definition used to address this violation of the human rights of children and adolescents includes marriages involving a conjugal union recognized by legal, customary or religious norms, as well as informal conjugal unions.