Child, Early and Forced Marriage: A Multi-Country Study.

In 2012, a two-part study on the state of forced marriage was undertaken by Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) for its program on culturally-justified violence against women, supported by the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Development for Democratisation (WELDD) consortium. This report is the documentation of that study and was subsequently revised as WLUML’s submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its report on preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage. Chapter 1 provides some background information on forced marriage, the gaps and shortcomings of existing literature, and a discussion on how this information is relevant to programmes aimed at eliminating this practice. Chapter 2 scopes existing literature on the existence of laws and/or practices in forced/early marriage in the contexts of the six countries where the WELDD program will be taking place, including: Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal and Sudan. Specific contexts, challenges, and opportunities are identified in order to inform country-specific strategies for work on this matter.