In 11 years, the Civic Registration Service (Serecí) registered 6,001 adolescents between 16 and 17 years of age who contracted marriages. Although the data reflect a decrease per year, it is still a widespread practice in the country.
That is, in 2014 the registration of adolescents in marriage reached 1,500 cases, the highest peak in the 11 years; however, in the last management there were 216 registrations.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), girls who marry before the age of 18 are at greater risk of domestic violence and are less likely to stay in school.
Child Marriage
The national director of Serecí, David Dávila, informed that, in that period of time, the institution did not register data on minors between 15 and 12 years of age. In his opinion, this is due to the implementation, since 2014, of the current Law 603 “Code of Families and Family Process”.
He recalled that the old Family Code of 1988 established, with only verbal consent, the authorization of the male from the age of 16 and the female from the age of 14 to marry.
“So, this was part of the regulation at the time that was used for marriage. It has been updated with the Family Code and already determines an age of 16 for both males and females,” he said.
Descent
Data from Serecí and the Ombudsman’s Office reflect that in the last administration, 216 marriages were registered in minors under 17 and 16 years of age; in 2023, 199 adolescents were married; while in 2022 there were 254 registrations; in 2021, 220 cases; in 2020, 214; in 2019, 302; meanwhile 2018, 458; in 2017, 570; 2016, 846; in 2015, 1,167 and in 2014, 1,602 marriages.
However, the May 2024 “Dreams Interrupted” report by the Ombudsman’s Office found the existence of marriages of 12-year-olds and adolescents aged 13, 14 and 15 in the period 2014 to 2018, subsequent to the enactment of Law 603.
According to the report, between 2014 to 2018, there are two records of marriages in children under 12 years old. The document detailed two cases of 12-year-old girls who married 23-year-old men in the municipality of Portachuelo, in Santa Cruz, in 2014; and another of the same age with a 22-year-old man in Caranavi, La Paz, in 2015.
Cases
There are also records of 17 marriages with adolescents aged 13; 129 records with 14 year olds and 399 marriages of minors aged 15. These data make a total of 547 records of adolescents and girls between 15 and 12 years of age who contracted marriages.
The ages of the spouses vary from 18 to 54 years old. These marriages occurred mainly in intermediate cities or rural areas, although the capital cities also register marriages with minors, but in smaller numbers.
“It is striking for the ombudsman institution that in 6.06% (112) of the cases, the husband doubles or triples the age of the wife; that is, there are 16-year-old adolescents married to 40 or 50-year-old men,” the report says.
In 1.8% (53) of the cases of 17-year-olds, this difference is double or triple the age of the wife.
Register
The head of the Gender and Generational Unit of the Ombudsman’s Office, Bolivia Sanchez, in an interview with La Razon in 2024, explained that the problem of married girls was identified for four more years after Law 603 came into force.
“As of the 2018 management, we have pleasantly found no major official cases of child marriages,” he said.
Most of these cases are reported in the departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.
“The departments of the central axis are the ones that register the highest number of marriages, Santa Cruz registers 27.52% (1,322); La Paz 20.94% (1.006); Cochabamba 17.36% (834); Potosí 12.97% (623); Beni 6.12% (294); Oruro 6.08% (292); Chuquisaca 3.85% (185); Tarija 3.58% (172); and finally Pando with 1.58% (76)”, indicates the report of the ombudsman’s office, which is updated until 2023.
Data on child marriage
Within the framework of the Fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review that took place on January 21 of this year at the United Nations (UN), the Ombudsman’s Office and the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations issued their reports presented in Geneva, among them, child marriage and child unions.
In his speech, Carlos Zárate, head of the Human Rights Community of Bolivia (CDH Bolivia), indicated that basically the recommendation on this issue is aimed at adopting measures against early or forced marriages.
He warned that Bolivian law allows adolescents over 16 years of age to marry with the authorization of those who exercise guardianship or tutelage and in the absence of these, the Childhood Ombudsman’s Office and in case of refusal, with judicial authorization.
However, he stressed that it is not admitted in children under 16 years of age. However, he said that, according to the Serecí, from 2010 to 2022 the number of adolescents between 13 and 17 years old who married was 11,297 registrations.
Repeal
In view of this, he pointed out that one of the recommendations is to repeal the Family and Family Process Code that allows marriage to minors under 18 years of age and to implement campaigns throughout the national territory, in order to prevent the harmful effects of early and forced marriages and unions.
In the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland, Monica Baya, technical secretary of the Human Rights Community (HRC), reported on January 21 that there were several recommendations from the countries present on the elimination of the exception to the minimum age of marriage for minors.
He said that other mechanisms have also expressed their opinion on the matter and indicated that there is a bill approved in the Senate, which is waiting to be processed.