Plateforme de suivi de l'EPU / UPR monitoring platform

There is no legal minimum age for girls to marry in Yemen. Many girls are forced into marriage, and some are as young as 8 Widespread child marriage jeopardizes Yemeni girls’ access to education, harms their health, and keeps them second-class citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a report released in december 2011

« In 1999 Yemen’s parliament, citing religious grounds, abolished the legal minimum age for marriage for girls and boys, which was then 15. In 2009, a majority in parliament voted to set 17 as the minimum age. However, a group of lawmakers, contending that reinstating a minimum age would be contrary to Sharia (Islamic law), used a parliamentary procedure to stall the draft law indefinitely.

Many othercountries in the Middle East and North Africa recognize Sharia as a source of law, but nearly all have set a minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls; many setting the marriage age at 18 or higher, conforming to international standards and treaties that define a child as anyone under 18.

Reference : http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/08/yemen-child-marriage-spurs-abuse-girls-and-women

Read the report