Bunting, Annie

This article examines the legal status of forced marriages during armed conflict. The author contends that such marriages should be considered enslavement under international law rather than a new and separate crime against humanity. By analyzing the conflicts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the author argues that forced marriages ought not to be conceptualized as a "new" crime against humanity as the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone has done. Instead, it is imperative to use the lens

In order to develop relevant and culturally appropriate international strategies for child marriage, the author argues that diverse socio-economic conditions and the cultural specificity of childhood and adolescence need to be examined. The author discusses the problem of uniformly conceptualizing all persons under age 18 as "children", as constructions of childhood vary across cultures. She examines how banning child marriage could exacerbate the underlying socio-economic problems that lead to child marriage in the first place.