Ukraine

9% of girls in Ukraine are married before their 18th birthday.

4% of boys in Ukraine are married before the age of 18.

Child marriage rates are slightly more prevalent in the Centre and South of the country, and in rural areas.

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

In Ukraine, child marriage is also driven by:

Poverty: 15% of women living in Ukraine’s poorest households were married as children, compared to 10% in the richest households.

Level of education: 17% of Ukrainian women who have completed secondary education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 9% who had completed higher education.

Ethnicity: Child marriage is reportedly more common among Roma communities living in Ukraine. Marriages are seldom registered within these communities due to an absence of passports. Early marriage also forms part of normalised Roma traditions which stigmatise girls independence.

Gender inequality: Patriarchal attitudes still maintain that a Ukrainian woman’s main role is to be a wife and mother. Some young girls and families support early marriage as it leads to the “right path” in life.

Adolescent pregnancy: According to a 2013 public opinion survey, 42% of respondents reported that they first had sexual intercourse between the ages of 16 and 18. Analysis shows that pregnancy is the main reason that courts grant permission for 16 or 17 year old girls to marry.

Ukraine has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a 2020 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum but there was no mention of child marriage.

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

Ukraine co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on 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, Ukraine also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

Ukraine ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2017 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns that child marriage still persists in Roma communities and recommended that the government strictly enforce its legal age of marriage.

Ukraine is one of the countries where the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/DREAMS Initiative is working to reduce rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women.

A 2012 amendment to the Family Code of Ukraine raised the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 years for both men and women under Article 22. Prior to this amendment, the legal age of marriage was 17 for women and 18 for men. However, courts may still grant permission from age 16 if there are special reasons.