Lituania

Only 0.3% of girls married before age 18 according to Statistics Lithuania.

Between 2014 and 2018, 300 marriages involving children were reportedly recorded by Statistics Lithuania, and 263 of those involved a girl aged 17 or below.

Girls within the Roma community are disproportionately affected by child marriage.

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

There is limited information on child marriage in Lithuania.

Lithuania 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 in any High Level Political Forum to date.

Lithuania has signed the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lithuania co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, and the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage. In 2014, Lithuania also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

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

Lithuania acceded to 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.

Lithuania has signed but not ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting 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 2016, the CEDAW Committee encouraged Lithuania to repeal provisions that lowers the legal age of consent for marriage. In 2019, the CEDAW Committee called upon Lithuania again to amend the Civil Code and raise the minimum age of marriage for women and men to 18 years of age, without exception.

At the London Girl Summit in July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.

Under Article 3.14 of the Civil Code 2000 of the Republic of Lithuania, the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years old. However, individuals may marry at 16 years with approval from the courts. The lowest age for the request to be submitted is 15 years old and the exception for this age is only if the girl is pregnant.