A Clash of Civilizations: An Overview on Child Brides and How the Syrian Refugee Crisis is Forcing Europe to Follow its Laws or Follow Another's

• Author: Jessica Smith
• Position: St. Thomas University School of Law
• Pages: 3-39

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2017 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

First and above all, I praise God for blessing me with the opportunity and ability to

pursue my dreams and for using me through this paper to spread knowledge about

injustices happening in the world to his children. I would also like to thank my better

half, Joshua Scott and my parents Pamela and Paul Smith for their unwavering support,

continued guidance and immense love that gives me daily motivation. Finally, I would

like to thank my dear friends Joanna Kallinosis and Laura Pereira for their continued

support, motivation, and assistance during the writing and editing process of this

pap er.

A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS

An Overview On Child Brides And hOw the syriAn

refugee Crisis is fOrCing eurOpe tO fOllOw its

lAws Or fOllOw AnOther’s

Jessica Smith

St. omas University School of Law

E-mail: JSmith5@STU.EDU

Everyday, all around the world millions of women and children are suering

from the eects child marriage. A child marriage occurs when a female child

is forced to marry an adult male. ese marriages are typically the result of

poverty, religion, and cultural norms. One of the areas with the most prevalent

amount of child brides is the countries throughout the Middle East including

Syria. As a result of the current refugee crisis occurring in Syria, where millions

of Syrian citizens are eeing their homes, of which many are eeing into the

countries of Europe willing to accept them. Many of the refugees coming into

Europe are already involved in a child marriage. Leaving the countries of Eu-

rope to make a dicult decision, should they violate their own laws and accept

the marriages to keep these “families” together? Or should they enforce their

laws and separate the adult men from their adolescent wives? e decision for

Europe touches on many areas that today seem to be to politically correct to

discuss without being spun into political pander. Issues such as assimilation,

nationality, religion, international and local laws, and cultural norms for both

Europeans and Syrians. ese issues are causing political tensions and societal

tension among European citizens and the refugees residing in their country. is

IV Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 3-40 (January 2017)

4

Smith

paper addresses the reasons child marriages occur, the U.N. resolutions that aim

at protecting women and children but are failing miserably, in addition to the

failure of many countries to put into place protections for female children, the

major detrimental eect child marriage has on young women both emotionally

and physically, and the cultural and religious conict between the refugees and

European citizens.

Keywords: Women’s Human Rights, Refugee Law, Gender Equality, Child’s Rights,

Comparative Health Law, e Human Right to Education.

I. INTRODUCTION

e morning of a wedding, the bride wakes from a blissful dream of

her beautiful gown and future husband to be, excited to spend her life

with the man she chose, the man she loves and the man that loves her

back, more than words can express. Another bride is startled awake the

morning of her wedding, not by blissful dreams, but by nightmares of

her future life. A man that doesn’t love her, a man that will use her as

a tool to fulll his sexual desires and to raise his children and clean his

home, a bright future wasted—no education, living in poverty, unwant-

ed pregnancies, complications from pregnancies due to girls age, risk

of HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, and continual sexual assault are just

some of the nightmares these girls face. Anyone hearing these words

has a strong connection to women. We all have our mothers, grand-

mothers, daughters, sisters, or let alone friends that are women. It is

easy to ignore an issue when it’s not something that can be seen or

when we can’t feel the eects of it personally. But these girls are daugh-

ters and sisters, they feel the eects of child marriage everyday. As a

society, we should pride ourselves on fostering the development and

expansion of women’s futures. Especially the Americas and Europe-

an countries who are not aected by the child marriage epidemic but

are strong world powers and have a substantial inuence over cultural

change throughout the world.

is paper will propose solutions for the end of child marriage for

young girls who have been aected and will in the future be aected

by child marriage. Section II will give a detailed description of child

marriage and who is being aected by this epidemic. Along with

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A Clash of Civilization: Child Brides and the Syrian Refugee Crisis is Forcing Europe to Follow its Laws or Follow Another’s

Smith

the conditioning factors which have led to the rise in child marriage

including: poverty, desire to maintain sexual purity, cultural/societal

norms, desires of pedophiles, and protection from widespread sexual

violence. Including how countries of the European Union are being

aected by the current Syrian refugee crisis. Many of the female

refugees are underage and involved in a child marriage whether or not

that marriage was done legally or not in their home country. In Syria,

the legal age for marriage is 17 for women and 16 for men. However,

religious leaders are allowed to make exceptions and approve marriages

for girls at the age of 13 while the male age remains at 16. In addition,

there remains no penalties in Syria for marriages conducted below the

age of consent. e countries of the European Union are now in the

process of deciding whether their laws will reign supreme or will they

make an exception to their laws and accept these child marriages as

legal. It must also be determined whether if these European countries

deem these marriages illegal what will happen to these underage girls.

Section III will analyze the conicting claims, claimants,

identications, perspectives, and bases of power. Including the victims,

victim’s families, lawmakers/members of government supporting

child marriage, lawmakers/members of government opposing child

marriage, and organizations working to end child marriage. Section

IV will analyze the conditioning factors including: a lack of global

denition of a child, lack of universal minimum age requirement to

enter into marriage, lack of universal standard on who can consent

to the marriage, lack of universal law aecting specically issues

of child marriage, and conict between cultural/religious beliefs of

refugees and European law. Along with past trends in decisions which

have aected the law including the United Nation’s Convention on

the Rights of the Child,1 the United Nations Convention on Consent

to Marriage,2 Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of all

Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the new laws coming

into place in the Netherlands and parts of Europe.

Section V will analyze future decisions in light of changed and

1. United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, G.A Res. 25, U.N.H.R.,

20th Sess., art. 1, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989) [hereinaer Rights of the Child].

2. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Regis-

tration of Marriages, Nov. 8, 1962, 521 U.N.T.S. 231, [hereinaer Consent to

Marriage].