Colombia's Congress has approved a bill to ban child marriage, the first successful attempt after 17 years of efforts.
The country will remove Article 117 from its Civil Code, which allows for individuals over 14 years old to marry if they have written consent from their parents or guardians.
Jennifer Pedraza, a congresswoman for Colombia's Dignity and Commitment Party (Dignidad y Compromiso) and co-author of the bill, highlighted the legislation's significance.
"The Colombian State must consider a horizon towards which to walk, and this is why this cultural, social, and political messaging is so important: Colombia will never allow underage marriage again," the congresswoman told Latin Times.
The United Nations General Assembly had already recommended that Colombia remove the article in 2014 "to guarantee the national judicial frame which complies with international human rights norms."
Pedraza explained that previous attempts to ban underage marriage had failed because this phenomenon is all-too-common in Colombian culture.
"I don't only say this because of Karol G's reggaeton, but also because of Lolita, One Hundred Years of Solitude... it is clear that this is intrinsic to our culture, in such a way that many artistic pieces showcase it, so our fight against this normalization of pedophilia was not easy," she said, discussing music, television and literary influences from Colombia which have made references to underage marriage.
Previous dissent came from congressmen who argued that adolescents who explore their sexuality should be allowed to marry. "Some of them even argued that we wanted to ban love!" congresswoman Pedraza stressed.
These previous attempts had also failed because of a lack of quorums in the debates, or because children's rights had not been prioritized by policymakers, Deutsche Welle reported in March.
How the ban was finally achieved
The goal to modify Article 117 dates back to 2007, a proposal shelved by the Senate. Seven additional attempts to prohibit underage marriage were proposed before Congress between 2015 and 2021. All of them were either shelved following debate, or withdrawn by their proponents.
The "They Are Girls, Not Brides" law was first introduced in August 2023, as per the Congreso Visible auditing program. Over a year later, and following approval by Colombia's Chamber of Representatives and Senate in four debates, it was verified by policymakers.
The law eliminates all forms of early unions in which one or both contracting parties are under the age of 18, and creates the National Program of Life Projects for Children and Adolescents.
According to Pedraza, the success of this ninth attempt has partly to do with the fact that the Colombian Congress is now 30% women-led.
"The 30% of women in Congress was important because of the way the debate happened. Many of my colleagues were willing to share their own life stories, those of their mothers, their grandmothers, and [explain] the systematic violence that emerged [from these underage unions]. Thanks to these interventions by my colleagues from all parties, even those who had reservations became obliged to either vote positively, or abstain from voting," Pedraza recalls.
Data shows that 17% of marriages in Colombia involve underage individuals, although the figure increases to 25% in rural areas. Of these unions, 70% involve girls.
As per Pedraza, Article 117 was creating an economic incentive for parents to wed their daughters in exchange for money, cattle, land, or a house. And the consequences of these early unions include higher risks for domestic violence, sexual abuse, childhood and teenage pregnancy, educational disengagement, and HIV infections.
"Colombia removes itself from the shameful list of countries that allow child marriage," congresswoman Pedraza stated on X, following the unanimous passing of the "They Are Girls, Not Brides" bill in Congress.
Latin America: A region falling behind
UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN Women have indicated that 25% of marriages in Latin America and the Caribbean involve at least one underage person. In fact, Latin America is the only region in the world which has failed to reduce underage conjugal unions over the last 25 years.
"If the observed trend continues, by 2030 Latin America and the Caribbean will have among the world's highest levels of child marriage, trailing behind only sub-Saharan Africa," UNICEF has noted.
Regions like South Asia and Southern Africa, while presenting more historically acute rates, have reduced the prevalence of child marriage significantly more than Latin America.
South Asia took its underage union rates from 60% in 2000 to 28% in 2020. Eastern and southern Africa also went from 39% in 2000 to 30% in 2020. Latin America and the Caribbean, however, maintained its rates fluctuating between 20% and 25% in this 20-year period.
In 2020, the Middle East and north Africa had lower child marriage rates than the Latin American region, with 15%, according to a UN Women study. This trend has continued into 2024, with the Girls Not Brides foundation reporting that the Middle East has a prevalence of 17% in under-18 marriages, compared to Latin America's 21%.
The countries with the highest rates of underage unions in the region include Belize, Honduras, and Barbados, with the Dominican Republic leading the list. In the country, 36% of marriages involve at least one underage person, regardless of a 2021 law that bans this practice.
Challenges in implementation
After Colombia's historic decision, the only countries left in Latin America to permit underage marriage are Argentina and Bolivia.
Argentines under the age of 16 can marry with a judge's approval, and those between 16 and 18 years old can marry with permission from their guardians or a judge. In Bolivia, those over 16 years old can also marry with their guardians' or the State's permission.
In the Caribbean, Anguila, the Bahamas, and Barbados still allow underage marriage, albeit with some limitations and requiring a form of parental or State consent, as per the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
As such, although countries like Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica have banned underage marriage, their rates are still the highest in the region, ranging from 20% to 26%.
UN Women explains that child marriage in Latin America usually happens as informal unions, "in which a girl lives with a partner, rather than a formal marriage."
In Colombia, the State recognizes a marital union after a couple has moved in together, and a patrimonial union after two years of cohabitation. In this, the recognition of a marital union with a child can be recognized without an explicit marriage before a judge.
Now, however, any marriage involving a person under the age of 18 will not be legally recognized, although this practice will not be criminalized.
"This [punitive approach] was attempted in Mexico, and in having been declared a crime, girls victims of child marriage did not want to report to officials, or even go to the hospital when they had been beaten or when they were in labor, because they were fearful that their parents, cousins, siblings would be imprisoned or fined. This criminalization ultimately alienates boys, girls, women and adolescents victims of this form of violence, from the Colombian State institutions," Pedraza said.
"What's next is the hardest part. Now, we have to wait for the presidential sanction, and then implementation begins, which is why President [Gustavo] Petro must sanction it quickly," she adds.
Petro, however, opposed a similar bill in 2020 while he was a Senator, citing that the State could not regulate women's hormones.
"Women act today because of hormones, and women of all social backgrounds learned to follow their hormones, not their parents' imposition [to marry]," he said at the time.
"He has not said anything, and has not opposed our bill, but we want it to be sanctioned soon. We will have to exert pressure for that to happen," congresswoman Pedraza concluded.
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