Title: Forced marriage in the USA: international law and the US policy

Authors: Nitu Kumari

Addresses: Maharashtra National Law University, Near Village Waranga, Dongargaon (Butibori), Nagpur-441108, Maharashtra, India

Abstract: Forced marriage has no single or universal definition. Forced marriage is marriage when one or both parties enter into marriage without their free and full consent or the consent of one or both parties were taken under physical or emotional pressure, duress and threat. Article 16 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also underlined and stated that consent is an essential notion of marriage, and marriage shall be entered only with free and full consent of intending parties (UDHR, 1948; ICCPR, 1966). Forced marriage is not an issue that only exists in one country or region. It is present almost across the world. In the USA, the laws related to marriage are individually governed by each state. Every state has its own policies on marriage, and in this condition, the issue of forced marriage was not equally noted, and with forced marriage becoming a burning issue in the USA.

Keywords: forced marriage; cultural conflict; universal declaration of human rights; UDHR; USA; marriage law; international law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2022.123683

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2022 Vol.9 No.3, pp.205 - 215

Received: 01 Jul 2021
Accepted: 14 Jul 2021
Published online: 30 Jun 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article