Ref: 101/2013
Date: 01 October 2013
Time: 12:22 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has followed up with concern what had been reported in local and social media in the past few days on the marriage of 2 minors in the northern Gaza Strip. This case has raised the issue flaws in the Family Law applied in the Gaza Strip and its violation of the human rights standards, especially those relevant to the age of marriage. PCHR, in view of the current political split that hinders amending laws because of the disruption of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s (PLC) work, calls upon the Chief Justice to issue an administrative order to guarantee conformity of the age of marriage with the relevant international standards.
PCHR draws attention that the marriage of minors in the northern Gaza Strip is not the first of its kind and it is a natural and predictable result of the inherent flaws in the Family Law No. 303/1954 that is applied in the Gaza Strip. The aforementioned law allows a boy over 12 years old and a girl over 9 years old to get married according to article 8 of the law: “No one shall make a boy below 12 years old or a girl below 9 years old get married.” This article actually specifies the minimal level of the age marriage by 12 for boys and 9 for girls although it determines the age of marriage at 18 for boys and 17 for girls.
Throughout the past years, it was important to amend the Family Law applied in the Gaza Strip in a way that guarantees its compliance with the international human rights standards. Amending this law has been the main demand of human rights and women’s organizations that have struggled to raise the age of marriage. However, in 1995, the Chief Justice issued Administrative Order No. 78/1995 to determine the age of marriage at 15 for girls and 16 for boys according to the Hijri Calendar. This order constituted a limited response to demands of human rights and women’s organizations to prevent early marriage and put an end to the marriage of minors.
Although the abovementioned order has increased the age of marriage allowed in the Gaza Strip from 12 to 16 for a boy and from 9 to 15 for a girl, it does not put an end to early marriage and is not sufficient to prevent the marriage of minors. However, the order and the Family Law offer a legal cover to allow cases of early marriage that violate the international human rights instruments and the Palestinian Children’s Rights Law No. 7/2004, which stipulates in its first article: “A child means every human being under the age of eighteen years.”
The demand to amend the Family Law applied in the Gaza Strip has been one of PCHR’s major demands. PCHR has repeatedly called for working on making such laws consistent with the international human rights standards. Nonetheless, PCHR, under the ongoing political split and its ramifications over the PLC’s work, believes that it is important to take a practical step in order to put an end to the marriage of minors through an administrative order to be issued by the Chief Justice similar to Order No. 78/1995, which is in effect. The required order must determine the age of marriage for both boys and girls at 18 in conformity with the international standards and the Palestinian Children’s Rights Law.
In light of the above and the cases of marriage of minors in the Gaza Strip, PCHR stresses that it is important for:
