Geneva: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has strongly condemned a new Taliban decree in Afghanistan that legitimises child marriage and considers a girl’s silence as consent to marriage, describing it as a “grave and systematic violation of international human rights law”.
“Child marriage, where at least one party is under 18, constitutes a harmful practice and is a form of forced marriage, given that children inherently lack the capacity to give full, free and informed consent to marriage,” the Committee stated.
The remarks came amid mounting global criticism over a May 14 law issued by Taliban authorities that legitimises marriage for girls upon reaching puberty and treats a girl’s silence after puberty as consent to marriage.
“Puberty cannot be considered a basis for adulthood or legal capacity to marry”, the Committee said, describing the provision as wholly incompatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“Child marriage constitutes not just a harmful practice but a fundamental violation of rights. It exposes girls to heightened risks of violence, exploitation, early and forced pregnancy, interrupted education, and long-term physical and psychological harm,” the Committee added.
The Committee, composed of 18 independent child rights experts, warned that any legal framework that normalises or facilitates child marriage violates children’s rights, undermines their “inherent dignity” and deprives them of their “autonomy and future opportunities”.
Expressing serious concern, the experts further said that the law forms part of a broader pattern of discriminatory measures by the Taliban authorities, including a ban on girls’ secondary and higher education in Afghanistan.
“These measures have deprived millions of Afghan girls of their fundamental rights, weakened their future economic and social participation, and deepened poverty and inequality across the country,” they added.
The Committee called on the Taliban authorities to immediately repeal all measures that violate the rights of children and to unequivocally prohibit child marriage. It also urged the authroities to restore the rights of girls to education, protection, equality, and full participation in society, in accordance with Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law and the Child Rights Convention and its Optional Protocols.
(IANS)
