Belgique

According to Statistics derived from the Population register, 2020 there are no cases of child marriage in Belgium.

According to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, cases of child marriage among populations with a migrant background, such as Turks, Moroccans, Roma and Afghans, and more recently Serbs and Chechen, may be under-reported and unidentified in Belgium. In 2019, the Federal Police statistics recorded 20 cases of child marriage.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is very limited information on child marriage in Belgium.

Belgium has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. During its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum, the government highlighted that a multi-stakeholder platform for international health has been developed, with an accessible e-tutorial covering a range of topics such as child marriage. The government has not submitted any Voluntary National Review in any High-Level Political Forum since.

Belgium has signed the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Belgium co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolution on child marriage: the 2013 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution to end child, early and forced marriage, recognising that it is a violation of human rights, the 2017 resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, and the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage. In 2014, Belgium also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Belgium co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2020 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Belgium ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2019, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concerns that child marriage, prevalent among populations with a migrant background, remains underreported and recommended Belgium to amend its Civil Code to remove all exceptions that allow marriage under the age of 18 years. The Committee also urged Belgium to strengthen awareness-raising campaigns, provide training for civil servants, law-enforcement officers, social workers, etc. on the identification of potential victims of child marriage, and establish protection schemes for victims of child marriage.

Belgium has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

Belgium has made children's rights a priority for its development cooperation. Within the framework of "She Decides”, in December 2018 Belgium earmarked EUR 2 million a year for a period of four years for the UNICEF-UNFPA Global Programme to Accelerate Action To End Child Marriage, a multi-donor, multi-stakeholder programme working across 12 countries.

Frontline workers of Fedasil, the Federal Agency for the reception of asylum seekers, have been trained on the identification of child victims of trafficking and child marriage.

Previously, in 2017, the Minister of Development Cooperation announced EUR 1.17 million to support UNICEF in tackling child marriage in Benin. The programme, Lutte contre le mariage des enfants au Benin, aims to give children and young people better access to justice and better protection from violence and sexual exploitation.

In 2015, Belgian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling for more efforts to help end child, early, and forced marriage. The resolution called on the government to address child marriage as a priority in its development cooperation policy.

The minimum age of marriage in Belgium is 18 years, this is outlined under Article 144 of the Civil Code.

Under Articles 145-148 of the Civil Code 2001, in exceptional cases, a judge may allow marriage prior to the age of 18, although in such instances the minors will need the consent of their parents.