When a young man from Mayra Lineth Pop`s village asked her to marry him for the second time, she was determined to reject him again. It was 2016 and she wasn`t ready to get married, she told her father. She wanted to continue her education. Her family needed money, her father replied, and it was time for her to start her own family. Delaware, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island,[21] New York, and New Jersey do not allow underage marriage. The other states allow a minor to marry in the following circumstances: The Guatemalan Congress has just decided to raise the legal age of marriage to 18! This is exciting big news. Not only for girls in Guatemala, but for all girls who are forced to marry every two seconds, all over the world. If at least one of the spouses has not yet reached the general age of marriage, the marriage is considered a minor. Six states completely ban underage marriage: Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New York. Other states may require the minor partner to obtain either parental consent, judicial authorization, or both, or to invoke “extraordinary circumstances.” The minimum age of marriage for minors, when all extenuating circumstances are taken into account, is generally between 15 and 17 years, but may be lower in California and Massachusetts. Nine states do not allow a person over the age of 21 to marry a minor. In a marriage proposal rejected by a judge, a 16-year-old girl told the judge that her father forced her to marry a man more than twice her age so he could pay a debt.
Pressure to raise the legal age of marriage has recently increased with growing national and international attention to Guatemala`s high rates of child marriage and teenage pregnancy. In 2015, Guatemala`s Congress passed a law banning marriage before the age of 18, but the law also stipulated that a judge could give teenagers 16 and older permission to marry. A new law passed in 2017, eight months after Pop won his case, closed that loophole. BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A year after Guatemala passed a law banning child marriage, poor families who see girls as a financial burden are still marrying them off as prolonged drought plunges many into deeper poverty, campaigners say. If at least one of the spouses has not yet reached the general age of marriage, the marriage is considered a minor and may require parental consent and/or judicial approval. Young people can also marry in “exceptional circumstances”. In many states (but not Massachusetts),[2] the marriage of a minor automatically emancipates him or increases his or her legal rights beyond the minor`s permission to consent to certain medical treatments. [3] She was 14 years old. The man who wanted to marry her was 21 years old. In 6 states, a 21-year-old cannot marry a person under the age of 18 – Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada.
In 1 state, Florida, a 20-year-old cannot marry someone under the age of 18. In 3 states, Georgia, Tennessee, and Ohio, a 22-year-old cannot marry someone under the age of 18. In Indiana, this is also most often true, although a 21-year-old can marry a 17-year-old. The age of marriage in the United States is the age at which a person can marry in the United States as a right or with parental consent or other authorization. This age is determined by each state and territory, either by statute or by common law. In general, a person can marry after reaching the age of 18 in all states except Nebraska, where the general age of marriage is 19, and Mississippi, where the general age of marriage is 21. [1] The general age of marriage is generally the age of majority, although in Alabama the general age of marriage is 18, while the age of majority is 19. Raising the legal age of marriage is a step in the right direction. Guatemala banned child marriage in August 2017, making it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to marry under any circumstances.
The Guatemalan Congress voted 87-15 to raise the minimum age of marriage from fourteen to eighteen for girls and from sixteen to eighteen for boys. However, the new legislation includes a provision that allows sixteen-year-old girls to marry with the consent of a judge. This provision means that Guatemalan legislation is not in conformity with the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, according to which the minimum age of marriage for both sexes should not be less than eighteen years. In an accelerated vote last week, Guatemala raised the legal age of marriage for girls and boys to 18, MenCare Guatemala partner ECPAT reports. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and its inhabitants are U.S. citizens. In Puerto Rico, the general age of marriage is 21, as that is the age of majority. The general age of marriage in Puerto Rico is 21 or 18 with parental consent. [35] In Guam, the general age is 18, but 16-year-olds may marry with the consent of at least one parent or guardian. [36] In American Samoa, the age of marriage has been 18 for both sexes since September 2018. Previously, the age of marriage for women was 14. [37] American Samoa does not allow marriages with minors.
In the District of Columbia, the general age is 18, but 16-year-olds may marry with exceptions. [35] In the U.S. Virgin Islands, the age of marriage is 14 for women and 16 for men. [38] In the Northern Mariana Islands, men must be 18 to marry, while women can marry at 16 with parental consent. [39] This year alone, UNFPA estimates that more than 550,000 Guatemalan girls will marry before the age of 18. In other words, 1,500 girls in the country marry every day. Last year, Guatemala recorded 74,000 births of girls aged 15 to 19 and 5,119 births of girls under the age of 14. Before the country`s Congress passed this measure to prevent child marriage, the legal age of marriage was 14 for girls and 16 for boys. Although the new law allows for some exceptions, it represents a significant improvement over the previous legislation.
These “best interests” were not defined and were the difference of a judge, but could result in a 16-year-old girl being forced to marry a man 3 times older than him – a flagrant violation of her rights. She travels to rural areas to convince parents not to marry off their daughters, saying some communities are unaware of the ban. (January 11, 2016) A November 2015 decree adopted by the Guatemalan Congress amended articles 81-84 and 177 of the country`s Civil Code on matters relating to the legal age of marriage. According to amended article 81, the minimum age for marriage is 18 years. However, the amended article 82 stipulates that, exceptionally and for “valid” reasons, the marriage of a minor aged 16 or over may be authorized. The new article 83 explicitly stipulates that the marriage of minors under the age of 16 may not be permitted. According to the new article 84, an application for authorization of spouses of minors who have reached the age of 16 must be submitted to the competent judge, who will take a decision after hearing the opinion of the minors concerned. The new article 177 in no way prohibits the official declaration of the existence of a de facto association of minors.
De facto unions are analogous to common law marriage, recognized in article 173 of the Guatemalan Civil Code. (Decreto No. 8-2015 (5 November 2015), Reformas al Decreto-Ley No. 8-2015. 106 of the Head of Government, Civil Code, DIARIO DE CENTRO AMÉRICA (Nov.
