What is Forced Marriage? Towards a Definition of Forced Marriage as a Crime against Humanity

The article analyzes the crime of forced marriage through studying the events in Democratic Kampuchea, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda. The article also looks at the 2005 Special Court for Sierra Leone (SC-SL), which separated forced marriage as an inhumane act from other crimes against humanity such as sexual slavery. By doing so, the article is able to explain the difficulties SC-SL had in defining forced marriage as a distinct inhumane act. Marriage was only understood and the harm categorized by relying on conjugal gender stereotypes. The article finishes by proposing that a situation qualifies as forced marriage when the involved parties subjectively believe they have been married. This avoids damaging gender stereotypes and accounts for the subjective societal harm the crime has caused.