Beyond legislation: What does it take to make child marriage laws work?

Every year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18. While progress towards ending child marriage remains too slow, legal and policy reforms around the world offer important lessons about what works and how change can happen.

This International Day of the Girl Child, we are looking at what it takes to turn legal commitments into meaningful protection for girls. Setting 18 as the minimum age of marriage without exceptions is critical, but it is only the beginning.

Ending child marriage requires comprehensive laws and policies that prevent marriages from happening, protect girls at risk and support their rights to education, bodily autonomy and a future of their own choosing.

Learning from legal reform around the world

In the United States, California’s recent ban on child marriage offers a timely example of progress, following years of advocacy.

“California’s ban demonstrates that progress is possible, even after years of advocacy. The next step is to build on that momentum. With child marriage still legal in 32 states, we need to learn from reforms that have worked and ensure that strong legal protections reach every child,” says Anastasia Law, Equality Now’s Legal Advisor for North America.

Understanding why some reforms succeed, how they are achieved and what makes them effective is essential to strengthening legal protections elsewhere.

Working with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, our legal experts set out to identify good practices from across the globe and examine how these approaches could inform future law and policy reform.

The resulting report, Towards effective laws: An analytical framework and compendium of good practices on laws and policies to address child marriage, draws on legal analysis, lived experiences and consultations with experts, practitioners, lawmakers and civil society.

Rather than presenting a single model for countries to replicate, it brings together practical examples that can be adapted to different national contexts, while recognising gaps in implementation and contradictions that may remain.

What can we learn from the research?

The compendium examines how countries can move beyond setting a minimum age of marriage to develop comprehensive legal and policy responses. It offers practical learning on:

• Why setting 18 as the minimum age of marriage without exceptions must be accompanied by harmonisation across related laws and legal frameworks.
• How prevention, protection and response measures can be built into child marriage laws and policies to address risks before harm occurs and support those already affected.
• How accountability mechanisms, clear responsibilities and multi-sectoral coordination can support effective implementation.
• What meaningful routes to remedies can protect and support children already in marriages.
• How criminal provisions can be designed and applied without unintentionally harming survivors and children.
• How legal reform can strengthen access to education, sexual and reproductive health and rights and other essential services.

These lessons are particularly relevant for lawmakers, legislative drafters, government ministries, legal practitioners and advocates seeking to strengthen legal protections and ensure they work in practice.

What successful reform processes can teach us

Two recent reforms in Latin America illustrate how the process of changing a law can be just as important as the legal provisions themselves.

A non-punitive, root causes approach helped advance legal reform in Colombia

After 17 years and eight unsuccessful attempts, Colombia raised the minimum age of marriage to 18 without exceptions in 2024.

The reform rejected a punitive approach, focusing instead on children’s rights and the root causes of child marriage. Strategic alliances between legislators, government and civil society, alongside public campaigning and efforts to challenge misconceptions, helped build broad support for reform.

The lesson: Legal reform can be strengthened by combining strong legal protections with approaches that address the drivers of child marriage and build support across sectors and communities.

Extensive consultation helped shape and build support for legal reform in Cuba

Cuba’s 2022 Family Code set 18 as the minimum age of marriage without exceptions following an extensive consultation process.

The Drafting Commission engaged 47 institutions and expert groups and received 389 expert submissions, while 6.48 million people participated in nationwide consultations. This input resulted in changes to 60% of the initial draft before the Code was approved by referendum.

The lesson: Meaningful public and expert participation can help shape legislation that reflects diverse perspectives while building wider understanding and support for reform.

Together, these examples demonstrate the value of looking beyond the final legislation to understand the advocacy, consultation and collaboration that make legal reform possible.

From laws on paper to protection in practice

We know from decades of work to end child marriage that passing a law is step one. Making it work is the real test.

Effective legal reform requires more than legislation. Governments must invest in implementation, coordinate across education, health, social protection and justice systems and ensure that girls can access protection and support when they need it.

Our new compendium brings together practical lessons from around the world to help policymakers, legal practitioners and advocates turn legal commitments into meaningful protection for girls.

Explore more of Equality Now’s research and resources on child marriage, including legislative reform, implementation, survivor protection and multi-sectoral approaches to ending the practice.

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