Cuba

29% of girls in Cuba are married or in a union before their 18th birthday and 5% are married or in a union before the age of 15.

6% of boys in Cuba are married or in a union before their 18th birthday.

The highest rates of child marriage are found in the provinces of Las Tunas (13%), Holguín (12%), Camagüey (10%), Cienfuegos (8%), Matanzas and Ciego de Avila (7%), Mayabeque (6%) and Artemisa (6%).

Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (CEFMU) are driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is very limited information on CEFMU in Cuba, but available studies show that it is largely driven by:

Level of education:43%of women with primary education or lower were married or in a union before the age of 18, compared to only15%who held higher education.

Cuba has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2021 High Level Political Forum. In this review, the government noted that in 2019, there were 918 cases of child marriages for children below the age of 18. The government acknowledges that to address this challenge it is crucial to address the patriarchal and cultural norms in Cuba as well as revise national legislation that sets the legal minimum age of marriage at 18 with no exceptions.

Cuba co-sponsored the 2013 and 2014 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage, and the 2013 Human Rights Council resolution on child, early and forced marriage.

Cuba ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which sets a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2020 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child acknowledged the draft of the Family Code. This revision of the code aims to align the minimum legal age of marriage with international legal instruments including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

During its 2013 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns that a special authorisation is sometimes given for girls to marry at the age of 14.

Cuba, 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. In 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed concerns about the prevalence of child marriage in Cuba and called on Cuba to take measures, including legislative measures, to prevent adolescents from marry.

Cuba, 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, the Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda was 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.

According to the Family Code 1977 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years for girls and boys.

However girls can marry at 14 years and boys can marry at 16 years with parental consent or in serious cases may require the consent ofthe court.