UNICEF: 108,000 girls and women in Serbia entered marriage before reaching adulthood

Early marriages often lead to dropping out of school and underage pregnancies. This is illustrated by the fact that one in three girls from the poorest Roma settlements gives birth before reaching adulthood, while three percent of girls from the general population also give birth as minors, the UNICEF report said, reported Politika daily.

The report notes that child marriages in Serbia most commonly affect children in Roma communities, where 56 percent of girls are married before the age of 18, compared to six percent of underage girls in the general population who enter child marriage.

“The fact that poverty is directly linked to early marriages is shown by the data that one-fifth of girls from the poorest segments of society marry before turning 18, while in the wealthiest segment that percentage is significantly lower - 0.7 percent,” the study says.

The authors of the research stress that it is necessary to explicitly define child marriage as a criminal offence against the sexual freedom of minors and to urgently adopt the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code, the Family Law, and the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence in order to ensure full legal protection for victims and accountability for adult perpetrators and those who enable such marriages.