United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Republic of Gabon
Saving the Children : Putting an End to Child MarriageTeenage
Pregnancy

Child marriage is something that is found in many parts of the world and Gabon is no
exception. This country, which is located on the west coast of South Africa, is also often a
child marriage. Child marriage itself is a marriage that involves a spouse of minors in the
marriage law. In Gabon, the legal age for marriage for woman is 15 years which explains the
high marriage rate of around 22-34%. This is usually caused by several factors such as
gender inequality related to family honor, social norms, socioeconomic environment,
related to religion and traditions, and humanitarian context. Child marriage also has
negative impacts including the time to receive higher education, the emergence of cycles, a
very fast population growth rate, and the risk of death due to birth in adolescence. 1
In recent years, the government and local institutions have taken important step in dealing
child marriage. Almost all countries have ratified major ragional and international human
rights convention, which states that marriage should not be allowed for boys and girls under
the age of 18. However, national laws still allow marriage before 18, good because minimal
marriage age is lower, or because there are exceptions to enforce 18 years as the minimum
age for marriage. The government also stressed the need to end child marriage and other
harmful practices affecting women, urges to develop comprehensive actions plans to end
children marriage and establish and enforce minimum marriage laws. Develop a national
strategy that aims to provide a coordinated response to child marriage. The government is
also increasingly collaborating with other key actors with the support of donors and
UNICEF-UNFPA Global Program on children marriage, government, international
organization an UN agencies to deal with child marriage. 2
Under the child protection program at UNICEF Gabon we focus on three major areas. Justice
for Children : When it comes to dealing with minors, the justice system in Gabon faces
bottlenecks. UNICEF Gabon is strengthening the network of access to justice for minors by
building the capacity of all required stakeholders for minors to access justice. Child
Trafficking : UNICEF Gabon works hand in hand with social workers in Gabon to rehabilitate
children who have been victims of trafficking. Birth Registration : At UNICEF we believe that
every child has the right to be recognized, fot the sake of their basic needs. 3
Addressing child marriage can be reduced by increasing human recources by equalizing
education throughout the region, socialize adolescent reproduction in schools, improve
social welfare, provide education to the public about the dangers of early marriage to
children. With this, it is hoped that child marriage can be avoided as much as possible to
realize the ideals of growing quality children.4
1,2
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org (Child-Marriage-in-West-Central-Africa.pdf)
3,4
https://www.unicef.org/gabon/en