The remarks came amid mounting global criticism over a May 14 law issued by Taliban authorities that legitimises marriage for girls upon reaching puberty and treats a girl’s silence after puberty as consent to marriage.
Geneva: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has strongly condemned a new Taliban decree in Afghanistan that legitimises child marriage and considers a girl's silence as consent to marriage, describing it as a "grave and systematic violation of international human rights law".
"Child marriage, where at least one party is under 18, constitutes a harmful practice and is a form of forced marriage, given that children inherently lack the capacity to give full, free and informed consent to marriage,” the Committee stated.
The remarks came amid mounting global criticism over a May 14 law issued by Taliban authorities that legitimises marriage for girls upon reaching puberty and treats a girl’s silence after puberty as consent to marriage.
“Puberty cannot be considered a basis for adulthood or legal capacity to marry," the Committee said, describing the provision as wholly incompatible with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
