Region: Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Prevalence rates
Other key stats
| Are there Girls Not Brides members? | No |
| Does this country have a national strategy or plan? | No |
| Is there a Girls Not Brides National Partnership or coalition? | No |
| Age of marriage without consent or exceptions taken into account | Minimum legal age of marriage below 18 years |
What's the prevalence rate?
5% of girls and 2% of boys in Belarus are married before their 18th birthday.
Child marriage in Belarus is relatively rare. However within the minority Roma community it is not uncommon for girls and boys to be married in their teens.
In 2019, 5,521 women between the ages of 15-49 were married before 15. Rates of child marriage are highest in Gomel (where almost 8% of women aged 20-49 are married before the age of 18), Grodno (7%), Mogilev (almost 7%) and Minsk (6%).
Child marriage in Belarus is twice as prevalent in rural areas as in urban areas.
What drives child marriage in Belarus?
Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.
There is very limited information on child marriage in Belarus, but available studies show that it is exacerbated by:
Level of education: 19% of women who had basic education were married before the age of 18, compared to only 2% who had completed higher education.
Poverty: Girls from Belarus’ poorest households are more likely to marry before the age of 18 than those living in the richest households.
Ethnicity: According to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, child marriage is particularly prevalent among the Roma community in Belarus.
What international, regional and national commitments has Belarus made?
Belarus has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review at any High-Level Political Forum to date.
Belarus ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.
In 2020, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that the marriage of girls under 18 is prevalent in the Roma community in Belarus. The Committee recommended Belarus to amend its legislation to remove all exceptions that allow marriage under the age of 18 years, conduct awareness-raising campaigns and encourage the reporting of child marriage.
What is the government doing to address child marriage?
The 2017-2020 National Plan of Action to Ensure Gender Equality includes among its objectives to ensure equal rights for men and women, improving legislation and its practical application. This action plan is a step forward in achieving the outcomes and targets linked to Sustainable Development Goal 5.
What is the minimum legal framework around marriage?
Under Article 18 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Marriage and Family, the minimum age of marriage is 18 years. However, in “exceptional cases” of pregnancy, delivery of a child or cases of acquiring full legal capacity before reaching majority, the body registering acts of civil status may lower the age of marriage by up to three years.
Data sources
- Belarus Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019, https://www.belstat.gov.by/ (accessed September 2020).
- Cappa, C., Gage, A., & Hotchkiss, D, Risk Factors Associated with the Practice of Child Marriage Among Roma girls in Serbia, 2016, https://data.unicef.org/resources/risk-factors-associated-practice-child-marriage-among-roma-girls-serbia/ (accessed September 2021).
- National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and UNICEF, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2012, 2012, https://mics-surveys-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/MICS4/Europe%20and%20Central%20Asia/Belarus/2012/Final/Belarus%202012%20MICS_English.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and UNICEF, Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey on the Situation of Children and Women in the Republic of Belarus 2019, 2019, https://mics-surveys-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/MICS6/Europe%20and%20Central%20Asia/Belarus/2019/Survey%20findings/Belarus%202019%20MICS%20Survey%20Findings%20Report_English.pdf (accessed September 2021).
- Republic of Belarus, Code of the Republic of Belarus on Marriage and Family, [website], 1999, https://cis-legislation.com/document.fwx?rgn=2040 (accessed September 2021).
- Social Institutions and Gender Index, Belarus, [website], 2019, https://www.genderindex.org/wp-content/uploads/files/datasheets/2019/BY.pdf (accessed September 2021).
- UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Belarus, 2019, p. 4 and 7, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fBLR%2fCO%2f5-6&Lang=en (accessed March 2020).
- UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations on the Combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of Belarus, 2020, https://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsng3QhcRVOo18YEahXg1g0FJuwmBoYaCZpwAR4rCCC4ZHA3LQ%2f3ORcdseLbECmStUlymRG5WkqL1goNtoTFYBuk5f76TGhWZ7rv5lxelLx00 (accessed September 2021).
- UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2021, 2021, https://www.unicef.org/media/108161/file/SOWC-2021-full-report-English.pdf (accessed October 2021).
- United Nations, Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, [website], 2017, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5 (accessed March 2020).
- United Nations General Assembly, National Report Submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 16/21 Belarus, [website], 2020, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G20/050/41/PDF/G2005041.pdf?OpenElement (accessed September 2021).
