The Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Necessity of Adding a Provision to Ban Child Marriage

The author examines provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages (Marriage Convention) detailing how these instruments address aspects of child marriage and how they fail to effectively ban child marriage. Also addressed is the incidence of child marriage and the social, economic, cultural, religious and political causes of the practice. The author argues that additional provisions to the CRC would be the most effective means of curbing child marriage, as those who support child marriage can use the CRC as it stands to support their arguments.