Child marriage is a practice that violates fundamental rights and limits the comprehensive development of minors, and therefore, it is necessary to expressly prohibit this practice, stated local representative Hilda Zulema Montoya García, who proposed reforming the Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents in the state of Nayarit.
“It is a categorical prohibition of the marriage of minors, given that they are not in a suitable condition to make a decision that will have effects throughout their lives,” the legislator stated from the podium when presenting her initiative.
She added that children and adolescents “must worry about studying, about having a family that protects and cares for them, but above all, they must be happy.”
Montoya García pointed out that these unions, often forced or early, are directly related to problems such as teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, school dropouts, and the continuation of cycles of poverty.
The goal is to eliminate all harmful practices such as early and/or forced child marriage.
The representative recalled that on April 30, various institutions such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNICEF, the National Population Council, and SIPINNA held a national forum on early marriages in Mexico.
“The purpose was to generate a space for dialogue among key stakeholders to promote strategic and effective actions aimed at preventing and eradicating this serious problem, which disproportionately affects girls and adolescents in vulnerable contexts,” she explained.
Data on early marriages in Mexico and Nayarit
Data from the 2020 Census of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) indicate that in Nayarit at least 2,800 adolescent women between the ages of 12 and 17 were living in marriage or union with other people.
In Mexico, 20.5% of women between the ages of 15 and 18 had already married or been in a union, primarily in states with a larger indigenous population.
Specifically, 10.9% of 17-year-old adolescents, 6.6% of 16-year-olds, and 3.0% of 15-year-olds were in a union or marriage in the country.
According to this census, the states with the highest absolute number of indigenous women married or in unions before the age of 18 were Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero.
The 2023 Marriage Statistics (EMAT), also from INEGI, reveals that “20 marriages were registered in the country in which at least one of the contracting parties was a minor. This figure is the lowest in the 2014-2023 period.”
It also reports that 21 individuals were minors at the time of their marriage. Among the states where these unions were registered during this period were “Chihuahua and Durango, with 12 and 6 cases, respectively; San Luis Potosí, with 2, and Michoacán.”
Furthermore, the institute mentioned that there are cases in which both spouses were minors, while in other cases only one of them was; it clarified that the information was obtained from monthly data provided by state civil registry offices.
Source: aristeguinoticias
