When Her Feet Touch the Ground: Conflict Between the Roma Familistic Custom of Arranged Juvenile Marriage and Enforcement of International Human Rights Treaties

This article focuses on the Balkan region (including Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary), explaining that the tradition of Roma juvenile marriage and traditional spousal role expectations (that women are prohibited from further education, restricted to marrying within the group, treated unequally in terms of infidelity and infertility, and forced into marriages arranged by parents) violate human rights of women. It describes how early marriage violates the human rights guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The author than argues that there is a problem with enforceability because of the host countries' open discrimination against Roma peoples. [Descriptors: Marriage: International - Europe]