From federal and state-by-state analysis to survivor stories, the compendium helps policymakers, the media, and the public understand this insidious form of child abuse and act to abolish it

Falls Church – Everyone should have the right to determine whether to get married, when, and to whom. But every year in the United States, hundreds of children find themselves locked into marriages they are not ready for — whether through coercion, or because it seems like the best way out of an abusive situation. The cycle of exploitation, abuse, and diminished futures continues.

Tahirih Justice Center compiled an updated resource bank of analyses, reports, and survivor stories to help lawmakers, the media, and the public inform themselves about the landscape in individual states and nationwide.

Today, in 2024, child marriage remains legal — fully or partially — in 37 states plus the District of Columbia. While 35 states have limited this insidious form of child abuse in some way since 2016, only 13 states have banned it outright. And the practice remains completely unchecked in 15 states plus Washington, DC. For nearly a decade, Tahirih Justice Center and partners have been working with survivors of child marriage and domestic violence to enact laws nationwide protecting children from abuse, exploitation, and the inability to determine their own futures.

The updated resource bank from Tahirih Justice Center includes a report about what the federal government can do to help end child marriage nationwide. This begins with enacting the Child Marriage Marriage Prevention Act, federal legislation introduced by Senators Durbin (D-IL), Gillibrand (D-NY), and Schatz (D-PA).

Because marriage laws are generally determined by the states, the landscape is complex and details matter. Tahirih’s resource bank includes 50-state appendices with detailed scorecards, plus data and analysis about progress made in individual states.

The resource also includes the lived experiences of people who have survived forced and child marriage, because they are the true experts in this arena and the voices that need to be heard.

Naila Amin, a survivor of child marriage and advocate for abolition, spoke out recently in Teen Vogue. “Naila’s Law in New York — which raised the age of consent to wed in the state to 18, effectively outlawing child marriage — is … named after a living victim: me, a survivor of the very thing the law now bans. I often wonder how different my life would have been if this law was in place when I was a child, before I was forced to marry an adult man. It would have saved me so much trauma, throughout years of my life, freeing me from the fear I still carry. As a mother of a daughter, I vow to protect her and all the other girls of this world to ensure that no child has to go through what I did, ever again,” wrote Amin.

Said Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager with the Tahirih Justice Center, “Congress must pass the Child Marriage Prevention Act to modernize federal and state law and protect our nation’s children. The bill encourages states to raise age-of-consent laws to 18, as is under consideration in DC; prohibits child marriages on federal lands and property; and strengthens U.S. immigration laws so that minors cannot be used by abusers — even under their parents’ direction or consent — as a passport to immigration.”

Wrote Casey Swegman, Director of Policy with the Tahirih Justice Center, in Ms. Magazine, “The Tahirih Justice Center, in partnership with survivor advocates and our allies in the movement to end gender-based violence, are advocating for swift passage of the Child Marriage Prevention Act because everyone should have the right to decide whether, when and whom to marry. The fact that children in so many states plus the District of Columbia, today, remain without this basic guarantee is a stain on our national conscience, but it’s a problem we can solve.”

Access the resource bank at tahirih.org/what-we-do/policy-advocacy/child-marriage-policy/

Contact: Lynn Tramonte, [email protected] / 202-255-0551