Austria agrees to ban marriages for those under 18 News
Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Austria agrees to ban marriages for those under 18

The government of Austria has agreed to ban all marriages under the age of 18, Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer confirmed on Monday.

Currently, under the Austrian Civil Code, the legal age for marriage is 18, although this rule includes an exception. Minors from the age of 16 can also legally marry with the consent of their legal representatives and the approval of a court. The new reform will eliminate this exception, leaving marriages exclusively for people over 18 years of age. According to local media, Justice Minister Alma Zadic stated that this reform will aid the fight against forced marriages.

Austrian news outlet Kurier reported one of the reasons for this reform is UNICEF’s worldwide call for a minimum age of marriage of 18 years. The European Union does not legislate on marriage, leaving space for each member state to establish rules on the matter. In this sense, all member states require the legal age of marriage to be the same as the age of majority, set at 18 for most states. Despite this, most countries are free to establish exceptions.

At an international level, General Comment No. 4 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, explicitly recommends “legislation and practice to increase the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years.” This is done to protect children from forced marriages, describing early marriage as a “harmful traditional practice.”

The reform plan will also seek to ban marriages between first cousins.

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