Deprived of Adolescence: Harmful Practices of Child Marriage in Georgia and Challenges Associated

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Examining girls' and women's status, access to opportunities and practices in educational spaces

Proposal

Child marriage remains a ubiquitous issue across the world and the country of Georgia is no exception, but it was absent from public rhetoric and policies until recently. Some secondary research on the region indicates that in the former Soviet republics, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus, rates of child marriage have increased since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, as has the number of girls in the 15-19 age group becoming pregnant and giving birth (UNFPA Georgia, 2017). Georgia has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Eastern Europe (Equality Now, 2020). The issue is rooted in gender inequality and patriarchal values. This presentation employs the following definition of child marriage drawn from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which states that child marriages occur when one of the parties is under the age of 18 and is considered to be a forced marriage because both parties have not given consent to the union (OHCHR, n.d.).
The factors that trigger child marriage are not homogenous and vary according to religious, ethnic, and regional differences which will be further elaborated on in the presentation. Child marriage is a gendered phenomenon that affects girls and boys in different ways. Overall, the number of boys in child marriages around the world is significantly lower than that of girls. Specifically, one of the most recent studies indicated that child marriages in Georgia occur more frequently in rural areas that are mainly populated by Armenian and Azeri ethnic minorities. In addition, there is a link between child marriage and poverty, indicating that girls belonging to the two lowest wealth quintiles are also most likely to be affected (UNFPA Georgia, 2017). Also, early child marriage among girls by the age of 18 is predominant in three main ethnic groups (UNFPA Georgia, n.d.):
• Azerbaijani - 37.6 %
• Georgian - 12.4%
• Armenian - 4.5 %
Overall, the issue severely affects girls from all three regions and results in domestic violence and child abuse, dropping out of education, early pregnancy, etc. The presentation examines the reasons for early marriage practices in Georgia and the factors that hinder girls' access to education after marriage. As it appears, according to the data, 46.5 percent of women aged 20-24 married by age 18 had only completed primary or lower secondary school, while just 3.1 percent of this group were in or had graduated from higher education (GEOSTAT and UNICEF, MICS Georgia, 2018). In analyzing this issue, this presentation highlights the correlation between girls’ access to education, the dropout rate at the secondary education level, poverty, and early child marriage. This presentation also provides an overview of the country's context in relation to ethnicity, Armenians, and Azeri minorities living experiences in Georgia, and explores the root drivers and implications of early child marriage, such as poverty and social status, lack of integration of some ethnic groups (Azerbaijan and Armenian) into wider society, language policy and education. Furthermore, the presentation examines the extent to which current international interventions and domestic legal frameworks, including the Civil Code, Criminal Code, and the Law on Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection, and Assistance of Domestic Violence Victims (2006), address the issue of early child marriage in Georgia.

Author

• Sopiko Beriashvili, University of Maryland, College Park