Abstract
Slavery, long abolished under international law, left a devastating imprint on Africa. However, enslavement of women through forced marriages remains a common phenomenon in many African states. These African states share the common feature of legal pluralism where traditional legal systems continue to be observed alongside national laws in which slavery is outlawed. Where traditional practices condone the marriage of underage girls who are legally unable to consent, the questioning of age-old accepted forms of marriage can generate strong reactions. This article traces the position of forced and child marriages in international law, and investigates how legality becomes a moveable target when legal systems exist in parallel. Despite international and African Union conventions on slavery and human rights declaring that marriages not based on the full and free consent of both parties are considered a violation of human rights and a form of slavery, these practices persist. These instruments are assessed to gauge the level of conformity (or variance) of African state practice where forced marriages commonly occur. Importantly, the reasons behind noncompliance and the impact of legal pluralism are explored in African states where forced marriages commonly occur.
Highlights
IntroductionThe most common and the least understood form of enslavement of women, both historically and today
Forced marriage is, arguably, the most common and the least understood form of enslavement of women, both historically and today
According to United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 41 percent of girls in West and Central Africa were married before age eighteen, and 16 percent were married before age fifteen
Summary
The most common and the least understood form of enslavement of women, both historically and today. His book Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves, won the Grawemeyer Prize (2007) He published To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today’s Slaves (2008) with Zoe Trodd; Documenting Disposable People with eight Magnum photographers; and The Slave Door: Modern Slavery in the United States (2009) with Ron Soodalter. There is an ideological undercurrent within most societies that insists that while many aspects of social life might change, marriage is untouchable In those countries that have interlocking systems of state, customary, and tribal law, traditional forms of marriage have even greater insulation against change. This means that while some forms of traditional inheritance patterns are protected, it can mean that cases of forced marriage are concealed behind a veneer of normative cultural practice. The debate concerns whether the question is even open to debate, and restricting the focus to this point distracts from more pertinent and fundamental issues
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