Albania

12% of girls in Albania are married before their 18th birthday and 1% are married before the age of 15.

1% of boys in Albania are married before the age of 18.

Available studies suggests that child marriage is most common among the Roma people, among Egyptians in segregated communities, and in poor, isolated and rural areas.

Many marriages involving children are not registered, which makes it difficult to obtain accurate statistical data. Child marriage remains an under-researched area in Albania with limited information available.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Albania, child marriage is also driven by:

Level of education: According to the Albanian Children’s Alliance, many girls in remote, mountainous communities drop out of school around the age of 12-13 to take on domestic work and prepare for marriage. Some parents do not see a future for their daughters beyond that of a wife, homemaker and mother.

Poverty: Girls in poorer households marry earlier. Some poorer families in rural areas still marry off their daughters in order to obtain bride price and as a way of easing financial pressures at home.

Social Exclusion: Within the Roma community, a majority of children face social marginalisation as they lack identity documents, have poor access to social services, and present high rates of high-school dropout and unemployment. These children are further forced to live in overcrowded homes which pushes young girls towards marriage as a viable option.

Ethnicity: The CEDAW Committee reported that child marriage is particularly persistent among Roma and Egyptian communities in Albania. According to a 2018 report, many members of the Roma communities believe that child marriage is a strong tradition in their communities.

Family honour: Some parents marry off their daughters when they reach puberty in order to avoid pre-marital sex and bringing shame to the family. The belief in the importance of the honour is particularly strong among Roma people in Albania. Often this is due to traditional views around women’s sexuality and their perceived role in society.

Social pressure: In Roma and some remote mountainous Albanian communities, the pressure on girls and young women to marry young so they are not considered “left behind” is very strong. Often, girls have very little say in decisions concerning their lives. Within certain communities, a gender bias exists where families place low value on girls’ education.

Power dynamics: Child marriages, including the selection of a husband, are often decided by a girl’s father.

Albania has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the government did not report on progress made against target 5.3 during its 2018 Voluntary National Review at the High-Level Political Forum, the mechanism through which countries report their progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Albanian government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review at any High-Level Political Forum since 2018.

Albania has co-sponsored the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Albania co-sponsored the 2019 Human Rights Council resolution on the consequences of child marriage. Prior to this, Albania co-sponsored the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2017 Human Rights Council resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts. In 2014, Albania signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Albania co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2020 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Albania ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1994, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2016 review, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern about the persistence of child marriage, particularly among Roma and Egyptian communities, families choosing husbands and the payment of bride price in rural, remote areas. It recommended that the government strictly prohibit child marriage and raise awareness among children, parents, community and religious leaders of the harmful impact it has on the health and development of girls.

During its 2019 Universal Periodic Review, Albania agreed to review recommendations to strengthen the efforts to prevent and combat child, early and forced marriage, and strictly prohibit child marriage.

Albania has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Albania committed to make changes to the legal age of marriage to be at least 18 by 2021.

Although the issue of child marriage is prevalent in Albania, it remains under-reported. There are laws that protect children from marriage, however these laws are ineffective, inconsistently implemented and no public policy exists to address child marriage in the country.

Child marriage has not been addressed directly as an advocacy issue by NGOs or government agencies in Albania. This is partly due to a lack of accurate statistical data and an assumption that issues of child labour, protection from violence and school dropout rates are the main risks to children.

More recently in November 2019, the government recognised the need to better understand the situation of child marriage in the country, especially within the Roma community, and establish monitoring and response mechanisms.

Under Article 7 of the Family Code of Albania 2003, a marriage can take place between a man and a woman who are 18 years or older.

Under Article 8 of the Family Code of Albania 2003, it states that the court in the location where the marriage is to take place may, for sufficient reasons, allow marriage prior to this age and this is decided on a case-by-case basis. No minimum age of marriage is specified under this exception. However, courts in the past have allowed marriage for girls below the age of 18 where they were pregnant or cohabitating.

Under the Albanian Criminal Code of 1995, the age of sexual consent is 14. Any sexual activity before the age of 14 is considered statutory rape. This law is further enforced under Article 130 of the Criminal Code which strictly prohibits forced marriage.