Region: Latin America and Caribbean
Prevalence rates
Child marriage by 18
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?
According to the most recent available data from 2006, 26% of Brazilian girls are married or in a union before their 18th birthday and 6% are married or in a union before the age of 15.
In Brazil, Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) take the form of legal, formally registered civil or religious marriages, informal unions or cohabitation. Distinctions between the three are often blurred.
What drives child marriage in Brazil?
Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.
In Brazil, CEFMU is also driven by:
Adolescent pregnancy: Pregnancy has been cited as a main influencing factor to CEFMU in Brazil and is strongly associated with the family’s desire to protect their honour. Some girls are pressured by their mothers and grandmothers to marry if they start to engage in pre-marital sex. Losing virginity is sometimes associated with ser mais nada(“becoming nothing"). Between 2015 to 2020, the adolescent birth rate amongst girls between the ages of 15 to 19 years old was 49%.In 2019, there were approximately 419,255 babies registered to adolescent mothers, the highest incidence in the North-eastern region of Brazil with 143,568 babies.
Violence against women and girls: According to a 2019 study, some girls in Brazil marry or enter into unions as a way to find protection in contexts of high levels of state- and gang-controlled urban violence. There are also reports of girls being married off to drug traffickers operating in low-income favelas.
Gender norms: Some girls see marriage as one of the only ways they can influence their life and seek freedom. Sometimes a girl’s choice to leave home and marry is seen as an act of rebellion from parental repression, which in turn is motivated by their concern over the family reputation and the worry that their daughters would become pregnant outside of marriage. Some girls and men view marriage as a passage to adulthood. This is balanced with a tension whereby girls take on adult responsibilities and raise children whilst also still “playing with dolls” and “acting in childish ways”.
Religion: Evangelical, Protestant and Catholic teachings drive gender norms related to virginity, pregnancy and abortion which enable and are sometimes used to justify CEFMU in Brazil.
What international, regional and national commitments has Brazil made?
Brazil 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 provided an update on progress towards this target since the 2017 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum.
Brazil co-sponsored the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage and the 2017 resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts.
Brazil co-sponsored the 2018UN General Assembly resolution on child, early and forced marriage.
Brazil 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 in 1984, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.
During its 2017 Universal Periodic Review, Brazil agreed to consider taking all necessary measures to effectively eliminate child marriage.
Brazil, as a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), is bound to the Inter American System of Human Rights, which recognises the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and calls to governments to strengthen the respond to address gender-based violence and discrimination, including early, forced and child marriage and unions from a perspective that respected evolving capacities and progressive autonomy.
Brazil ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women(known as the Belém do Pará Convention) in 1995. In 2016, theFollow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI) recommended State Parties to review and reform laws and practices to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for women and men.
Brazil, as a member of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development in 2013, which recognises the need to address the high levels of adolescent pregnancy in the region as usually associated with the forced marriage of girls. In 2016, theMontevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agendawas also approved by the ECLAC countries. This Agenda encompasses commitments made by the governments on women’s rights and autonomy, and gender equality, during the last 40 years in the Regional Conferences of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Agenda reaffirms the right to a life free of all forms of violence, including forced marriage and cohabitation for girls and adolescents.
Brazil is a Pathfinder country for the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.
At the 2014 London Girl Summit, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.
What is the government doing to address child marriage?
Despite the prevalence of CEFMU in Brazil, the problem has been absent in national research and policy-making agendas. A lack of reporting of informal unions and cohabitation makes a systematic review and response to CEFMU extremely challenging.
In August 2020, the government published an e-book titled “Facing online violence against adolescents in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.” This booklet aims to raise awareness on violence against women and girls as well as educating girls on violence in the digital space, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, the government added Article 8(a) to Law n. 13,798 which established a National Week of Teenage Pregnancy Prevention. This campaign takes places on the 1st of February every year and aims to raise awareness on adolescent pregnancy and preventative measures with the slogan "Everything has its proper time.”
What is the minimum legal framework around marriage?
While 18 years is the minimum age of marriage, under the Civil Code 2002, both girls and boys who are 16 years old can marry with the consent from either parents or their legal representatives.
In 2019, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro approved a law change to the Civil Code, after being passed in Brazil’s National Congress and Senate, which prohibits any form of marriage of children under 16 years old. Previously, exemptions existed for minors under the age of 16 to be married off in the case of pregnancy or to avoid a criminal sentence for statutory rape.
Content featuring Brazil
Report
Tackling the Taboo in Latin America and the Caribbean: Sexuality and gender-transformative programmes to address child, early and forced marriage and unions
Report and case studies with insights on how control of adolescent girls’ sexuality drives child marriage and early unions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and gender-transformative responses by community-based organisations.
Fact sheet and brief, Girls Not Brides materials
Addressing child marriage through education: What the evidence shows
The brief examines what works to address child marriage through education. It highlights barriers to girls' education and recommends strategies to address them.
Fact sheet and brief
Child marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean
This brief by Girls Not Brides highlights what we know about child marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Report
Child and adolescent marriage in Brazil: executive summary
This report looks at child marriage in Brazil.
Data sources
- ComisiónInteramericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), La Infancia y Sus Derechosenel Sistema Interamericano de Protección de Derechos Humanos (Segunda Edición), OEA/Ser.L/V/II.133, 2008, https://cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Infancia2sp/Infancia2indice.sp.htm (accessed March 2020).
- Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Montevideo consensus on population and development, Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2013, https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/21860/4/S20131039_en.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030, Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2016, https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/41013/S1700033_en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed March 2020).
- Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI), Hemispheric report on sexual violence and child pregnancy in the States Party to the Belém do Pará Convention, 2016, https://www.oas.org/es/mesecvi/docs/MESECVI-EmbarazoInfantil-EN.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Girl Summit 2014, The Girl Summit Charter on Ending FGM and Child, Early and Forced Marriage, [website], 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459236/Public_Girl_Summit_Charter_with_Signatories.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, Brazil, [website], https://www.end-violence.org/impact/countries/brazil (accessed March 2020).
- Instituto Promundo and Promundo-US, Exploring Child Marriage in Brazil, 2013, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/ForcedMarriage/NGO/PromundoChildMarriageInBrazil.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Ministry of Health, Brazil National Demographic and Health Survey of Children and Women 2006-2007, 2007, http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/pnds_crianca_mulher.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, V-VII Combined periodic reports submitted by the Brazilian state on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2fC%2fBRA%2f5-7&Lang=en (accessed March 2022).
- Organization of American States (OAS), Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women ("Convention of Belem do Pará"), 9 June 1994, https://www.oas.org/es/mesecvi/convencion.asp (accessed March 2020).
- Plan International, Brazil bans child marriage for under 16’s, [website], 2019, https://plan-international.org/news/2019-03-22-brazil-bans-child-marriage-under-16s (accessed April 2020).
- Promundo Global, “She goes with me in my boat”: Child and adolescent marriage in Brazil, 2015, https://promundoglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SheGoesWithMeInMyBoat_ChildAdolescentMarriageBrazil_EN_postprint_web.pdf (accessed March 2020).
- Taylor, A. M. A., Child Marriages and Unions in Latin America: Understanding the Roles of Agency and Social Norms, Journal of Adolescent Health, 64:4, 2019, https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(19)30007-2/fulltext (accessed March 2020).
- UN General Assembly, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review: Brazil, 2017, p.22, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/BRIndex.aspx (accessed March 2020).
- UNICEF global databases 2020, based on Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and other national surveys. Population data from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2019). World Population Prospects 2019, Online Edition. Rev. 1.
- United Nations, Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, [website], 2017, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5 (accessed March 2020).