96 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

DOES CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASE THE RISK OF 
CHILD MARRIAGE? A LOOK AT WHAT WE KNOW—
AND WHAT WE DON’T—WITH LESSONS FROM 
BANGLADESH AND MOZAMBIQUE  
 
CHRISTIE MCLEOD, HEATHER BARR & KATHARINA RALL* 

 
INTRODUCTION 

 
Beauty (a pseudonym) does not know exactly how old she was when she got married. 

She is now around forty years old, and her oldest child, a son, is twenty-five. She lives in 
a rural village in Noakhali district in Bangladesh. In an interview with Human Rights 
Watch (“HRW”), Beauty said: 

 
River erosion took our house, so we came here . . . We didn’t know 
anyone, so we were vulnerable, so my husband was able to threaten us. 
He told my father, “I will marry your daughter, or I will burn your house 
down.” My father had refused to give me to him because he already had 
a wife, but then he threatened us.1 

 
Her husband eventually abandoned her and their three children to return to his first 

wife. As a single mother, Beauty relies on agricultural work to feed her children and 
often loses the chance to work due to regular flooding in her area. Even though tuition is 
waived for primary school in Bangladesh, she was forced to take her two daughters out of 
school after class five and class three,2 as they could not afford to purchase school 

 
* Christie McLeod is in her final year of a joint degree program to obtain a Juris Doctor at Osgoode Hall Law 
School and Master in Environmental Studies at York University. Heather Barr is acting co-director of the 
women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch. She has written extensively for Human Rights Watch on 
child marriage, including reports on based on research in Bangladesh and Nepal, and related work on 
locations including Afghanistan, European Union states, Japan, Latin America, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua 
New Guinea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Katharina Rall is a researcher with the 
Environment and Human Rights division at Human Rights Watch where she focuses on research and 
advocacy on climate change. 
 
1  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY: CHILD MARRIAGE IN BANGLADESH 
34 (2015), https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/bangladesh0615_web.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/G7DK-9TGL] [hereinafter HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT 
AWAY]. Polygamy is legal under some circumstances in Bangladesh. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         97 

supplies and uniforms. She arranged marriages for both daughters when they reached age 
fifteen, saying she knew “the right age to get married is 18,” but that she did not have 
enough money to feed them. 

 
While the rate of child marriage in Bangladesh is high across all parts of the country 

and all demographic groups, research shows that some girls are at higher risk than others. 
A heightened incidence of child marriage is associated with living in rural areas, receiving 
less education, and poverty.  

 
Beauty’s story raises questions about the role that riverbank erosion and extreme 

flooding—environmental changes exacerbated by climate change—may play in driving 
child marriage. Recent research suggests that there is a correlation between an increased 
risk of child marriage in Bangladesh and areas affected by natural disasters that are 
predicted to occur more often and/or with greater severity as a result of climate change.3 In 
countries such as Bangladesh, where both child marriage rates and poverty levels are high, 
the impacts of climate change on income security and options for income generation, if not 
mitigated, may increase the incentive for families to marry their daughters off earlier than 
they otherwise would. 

 
Perhaps the most pivotal injustice of climate change is that those least responsible for 

the emissions that contributed to climate change are and will be most impacted by the 
effects of climate change. As such impacts occur, certain populations including women 
and children are likely to be affected disproportionately. 

 

 
2  Bangladesh’s education system is broken into three levels: primary school, secondary school (which is 
broken into junior secondary, high school, and higher secondary), and higher or tertiary education (post-
secondary). Class five and three would be similar to grades five and three at a Western school. See 
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA: BANGLADESH—EDUCATION, https://www.britannica.com/place/Bangladesh/ 
Education [https://perma.cc/72PH-4NPS]. 
 
3  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1; Margaret Alston et 
al., Are Climate Challenges Reinforcing Child and Forced Marriage and Dowry as Adaptation Strategies in 
the Context of Bangladesh?, 47 WOMEN’S STUD. INT’L F. 137 (2014) [hereinafter Alston, Are Climate 
Challenges Reinforcing Child and Forced Marriage]; Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Fragile States, Fragile 
Lives: Child Marriage Amid Disaster and Conflict 7 (Council On Foreign Relations, Working Paper, 2014), 
https://www.cfr.org/sites/default/files/pdf/2014/06/WP_Fragile_States.pdf [https://perma.cc/P7WP-9MCZ] 
[hereinafter Lemmon, Fragile States, Fragile Lives]; ANITA SWARUP ET AL., PLAN INTERNATIONAL, 
WEATHERING THE STORM: ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (Sharon Goulds ed., 2011) https://plan-
international.org/publications/weathering-storm#download-options [https://perma.cc/97LF-5TY6] 
[hereinafter SWARUP ET AL., WEATHERING THE STORM]. 



 
98 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

While child marriages are almost always the result of multiple interconnected factors, 
this Article will examine the existing evidence of a connection between the impacts of 
climate change and child marriage and analyze some of the research and monitoring gaps. 
Are existing climate change policies, as well as measures taken to reduce and eliminate 
child marriage, addressing this link? What are the human rights obligations of governments 
to protect girls from child marriage, including in times of disaster?  

 
Part I of the Article summarizes the current state of research about the causes and 

consequences of child marriage, followed by a review of the available research on 
connections between child marriage and climate change. It will examine the extent to 
which evidence has been gathered on this topic and assess the different ways in which 
impacts of climate change have been found to influence decisions regarding child marriage. 
It will argue that, while there are significant gaps in the research, there is growing evidence 
that climate change may exacerbate the rate of child marriage.  

 
Part II presents two country-specific case studies of the potential connection between 

climate change and child marriage in Bangladesh and Mozambique, two countries that are 
highly vulnerable to climate change and have rates of child marriage among the highest in 
the world. It also reviews laws and policies adopted by Bangladesh and Mozambique to 
cope with climate change and to reduce child marriage, and what lessons these efforts 
provide for other countries facing similar challenges.   

 
Part III reviews relevant obligations of governments under international human rights 

law and within the international climate change regime. In Part IV, the Article proposes 
measures to ensure that climate change mitigation efforts are grounded in an understanding 
of the gendered ways in which climate change affects women and girls, including through 
increased child marriage, and that anti-child marriage efforts take into account the impacts 
of climate change. 

 
I. Is There a Relationship Between Climate Change and Child Marriage? 
 

A. The Prevalence of Child Marriage, Its Drivers, and Consequences 
 

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (“UNICEF”), over 700 million 
women around the world today were married before the age of eighteen. More than one-
third of these women (over 250 million) were married before their fifteenth birthday.4 

 
4  UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND, ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE: PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS (2014), 
https://www.unicef.org/ media/files/ Child_Marriage_Report_7_17_LR..pdf [https://perma.cc/EB8E-EAVN].  
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         99 

Nearly every two seconds, another girl under the age of eighteen is married—a total of 
about twelve million girls each year.5  

 
Child marriage, defined as a marriage where at least one of the parties is under the 

age of eighteen,6 occurs in every region of the world. Niger has the highest rate of child 
marriage in the world, with more than three-quarters of its girls married before age 
eighteen (seventy-six percent).7 After Bangladesh, India has the highest rate of child 
marriage in Asia, with forty-seven percent of girls married by age eighteen.8 Nicaragua 
has the highest rate in Latin America, with thirty-five percent of girls married by age 
eighteen.9 Child marriage is also legal—and occurring—in the United States and in 
European countries including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, and the United Kingdom.10 

 
In the United States alone—where children can legally marry in forty-eight out of 

fifty states under some circumstances—an estimated 248,000 children were married 

 
5  GIRLS NOT BRIDES: ABOUT CHILD MARRIAGE, https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/ 
[https://perma.cc/2XKQ-F8YN]. 
 
6  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 9. Boys also 
experience child marriage, but at far lower rates than girls. 
 
7  GIRLS NOT BRIDES: NIGER, https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/niger/ [https://perma.cc/8MGL-
DFSG]. 
 
8  UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND, Statistical Tables, in THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2017: 
CHILDREN IN A DIGITAL WORLD 146, 182–85 (Dec. 10, 2017), https://data.unicef.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/03/SOWC-2017-statistical-tables.pdf [https://perma.cc/3X7D-CL9H] [hereinafter 
UNICEF Statistical Tables]. 
 
9  GIRLS NOT BRIDES: NEPAL, https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/nepal/ [https://perma.cc/ZMF8-
ULEC]; GIRLS NOT BRIDES: NICARAGUA, https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/nicaragua/ 
[https://perma.cc/P7TP-XU6Z]. 
 
10  Heather Barr, European Parliament Committee Urges End to Child Marriage, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 
(April 16, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/16/european-parliament-committee-urges-end-child-
marriage [https://perma.cc/B8AW-M4ND]; Fraidy Reiss, Why Can 12-year-olds Still Get Married in the 
United States?, WASH. POST (Feb. 10, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/ 
02/10/why-does-the-united-states-still-let-12-year-old-girls-get-married/?postshare= 
701486850216167&utm_term=.3c9f7be0912e [https://perma.cc/SU6F-2QYT]; Heather Barr, If You Don’t 
Want Child Brides in Bangladesh, Don’t Accept Them Here in Britain Either, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (Feb. 
1, 2017), https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/01/if-you-dont-want-child-brides-bangladesh-dont-accept-
them-here-britain-either [https://perma.cc/DHZ3-4L3M]. 
 



 
100 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

(mainly girls to adult men) between 2000 and 2010.11 In eighteen states, children of any 
age can marry in some circumstances, with no absolute minimum age.12 

 
The decision for a child to marry—whether made by parents, other family members, 

or a child her or himself—is often shaped by a web of intersecting factors, including 
poverty, access to education, social pressure and norms, harassment and intimidation, and 
the continued practices of dowry and brideprice.13  

 
Poverty is a chief determinant of child marriage. According to the United Nations 

Population Fund (“UNFPA”), a girl whose family’s income falls within the lowest 

 
11  Reiss, supra note 10. In May 2018, Delaware banned all child marriage, becoming the first American 
state to do so. See Heather Barr, Delaware Ends Child Marriage; 49 to Go and Counting, HUMAN RIGHTS 
WATCH (May 9, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/05/10/delaware-ends-child-marriage-49-go-and-
counting [https://perma.cc/58QC-J9UP]. New Jersey banned all child marriage the following month. Michael 
Stone, New Jersey Becomes Second State to Issue Complete Ban on Child Marriage, PATHEOS (June 25, 
2018), https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/06/new-jersey-becomes-second-
state-to-issue-complete-ban-on-child-marriage/ [https://perma.cc/W5ZD-B3NN]. 
 
12  TAHIRIH JUSTICE CTR. FORCED MARRIAGE INITIATIVE, UNDERSTANDING STATE STATUTES ON MINIMUM 
MARRIAGE AGE AND EXCEPTIONS 2 (2018), https://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2018-State-
Marriage-Age-Requirements-Statutory-Compilation.pdf [https://perma.cc/NCH4-LBQE]. This source notes 
that twenty states have no statutory minimum age of marriage. Id. Since the source’s most recent update, two 
other states (New Jersey and Ohio) have set minimum ages of marriage. See also Laura A. Bischoff, Ohio to 
Raise Marriage Age after Dayton Daily News Investigation, SPRINGFIELD NEWS-SUN (Jan. 7, 2019), 
https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/ohio-raise-marriage-age-after-dayton-daily-news-investigation/ 
8WZqMZmdjJq5dNCSEWEPZM/ [https://perma.cc/53WD-3R9Y]; Stone, supra note 11. 
 
13  For millions of girls, the decision to get married is often not a true full expression of choice, but rather the 
means either necessary or available to maintain or secure basic rights such as food and education. In such 
instances, agency may be exercised, but choice is largely lacking. In a seminal piece recasting child marriage 
as an adaptation strategy in a Kenyan pastoralist community, however, Caroline Archambault emphasized the 
need to avoid “prevailing binaries that distinguish violators from victims, patriarchy from female 
empowerment, tradition from modernity, and collective culture from individual rights.” She noted that, while 
such tactics may effectively mobilize support, they often conceal the true structural factors that bring about 
child marriages and avert “attention from important policy interventions that could more effectively address 
the issue.” Caroline S. Archambault, Ethnographic Empathy and the Social Context of Rights: “Rescuing” 
Maasai Girls from Early Marriage, 113 AM. ANTHRO. 632, 633 (2011) [hereinafter Archambault, 
Ethnographic Empathy]. Similar considerations arise when discussing climate change. Kasia Paprocki 
disclosed how “dystopic climate narratives” in Bangladesh fueled perceptions of “powerlessness, inferiority, 
dependency, and failure.” Kasia Paprocki, Threatening Dystopias: Development and Adaptation Regimes in 
Bangladesh, 108 ANN. AM. ASSOC. GEOGRAPHY 955, 956 (2018); Kasia Paprocki, We Need to Change the 
Way We Talk About Climate Change, AL JAZEERA (Feb. 23, 2018), https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/ 
opinion/bangladesh-climate-shithole-180223104247800.html [https://perma.cc/2SZB-CCG5]. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         101 

quintile is more than twice as likely to marry before her eighteenth birthday as a girl 
whose family’s income is within the highest quintile.14 In many countries where there is a 
high prevalence of child marriage, it is common for married girls to live with their 
husbands’ families; for poor families this both creates disincentives to invest in 
daughters’ education and incentives to marry girls off early to remove a financial burden. 

 
Another key predictor of child marriage is education.15 The longer a girl stays in 

school, the greater the likelihood that she will not marry as a child. According to UNFPA, 
girls “with only a primary education are twice as likely to marry or enter into a union 
under eighteen as are those with secondary or higher education. And girls with no 
education are three times as likely to marry before eighteen as those with secondary or 
higher education.”16 According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 
Organization, more than 130 million girls around the world were not in school in 2014.17 

 
Girls face many barriers to education, including discriminatory practices by 

governments, schools, and educators, as well as harmful gender norms within their own 
communities. Poverty is a major barrier to education, and one that often 
disproportionately affects girls, due to gender discrimination—when families cannot 
afford to educate all of their children, they often prioritize boys. While many countries 

 
14  EDILBERTO LOAIZA & SYLVIA WONG, UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND, MARRYING TOO YOUNG: END 
CHILD MARRIAGE 35 (2012), http://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/MarryingTooYoung.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/HDB6-PQPN] [hereinafter LOAIZA & WONG, MARRYING TOO YOUNG]. 
 
15  In 18 of the 20 countries with the highest prevalence of child marriage, a girl’s level of education was 
found to be the strongest predictor of the age she will marry. See INT’L CTR. FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN, 
FACTSHEET: CHILD MARRIAGE AND EDUCATION (2006), https://www.icrw.org/files/images/Child-Marriage-
Fact-Sheet-Education.pdf [https://perma.cc/AX98-S5R2].  
 
16  LOAIZA & WONG, MARRYING TOO YOUNG, supra note 14, at 34. Kate Hodgkinson notes the limited 
research considering how education specifically impacts child marriage rates: Does educating girls directly 
reduce their likelihood to enter into a child marriage, or is this correlation caused by indirect factors? Further 
exploration of these nuances could serve to inform efforts on keeping girls in school. KATIE HODGKINSON, 
UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING CHILD MARRIAGE: A SCOPING STUDY OF AVAILABLE ACADEMIC AND 
PROGRAMMATIC LITERATURE FOR THE HER CHOICE ALLIANCE 36 (2016), https://www.her-choice.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Her-Choice-Scoping-Study-Final-July-16.pdf [https://perma.cc/K5H7-GQQH] 
[hereinafter HODGKINSON, UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING CHILD MARRIAGE]. 
 
17  32.1 million were of primary school age (about 6 to 11 years old), 29.1 million were of lower secondary 
school age (about 12 to 14 years old), and 69.1 million were of upper secondary school age (about 15 to 17 
years old). See UNITED NATIONS EDUC., SCI., & CULTURAL ORG., LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND: HOW FAR ON THE 
WAY TO UNIVERSAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION? 1 (2016), unesdoc.unesco.org/images/ 
0024/002452/245238E.pdf [https://perma.cc/ZV6U-S2AD]. 
 



 
102 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

have eradicated tuition fees for primary education, associated costs—including exam 
fees, writing supplies, books, and uniforms—continue to keep many children out of 
school. For example, in Bangladesh, HRW found that even an exam fee equaling $0.13 
USD was unaffordable for some families.18  

 

Social pressures and harmful gender norms sometimes encourage child marriage. In 
some communities, puberty is perceived as an indicator that a girl is ready to be 
married.19 Child marriage is sometimes seen by families as a way to ensure that a girl 
does not engage in a romantic or sexual relationship outside of marriage, particularly in 
communities in which extra-marital relationships are seen as harming the reputation of 
the family or the ability of the girl to marry.20  

 
Early pregnancies can lead to pressure for children to marry. In many countries, the 

stigma surrounding pregnancies that occur out of wedlock may cause unwed pregnant 
girls to feel they must get married urgently.21 Boys who are expecting fathers may also be 
under pressure to marry.22 Where this stigma is severe, even the fear of pregnancy may 
trigger a marriage among young people who are sexually active.23 

 
18  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 48. Child labor 
also keeps many girls out of school, as they work to help their families survive. Sexual harassment drives 
some girls out of school. In areas affected by crisis or conflict, girls are often the first to be kept home as 
insecurity rises. Lack of adequate toilet facilities keeps many girls home, especially as they reach puberty and 
begin menstruation, causing them to miss school, fall behind, and too often drop out. Id. at 39, 43, 56, 109; 
see also Oni Lusk-Stover et al., Globally, Periods are Causing Girls to be Absent from School, WORLD BANK 
(Jun. 27, 2016), https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/globally-periods-are-causing-girls-be-absent-school 
[https://perma.cc/ZKL6-LLXK]. 
 
19  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 9. 
 
20  Id. at 25. For instance, HRW interviewed a mother in Bangladesh who said that she planned to let her 
daughter wait until she was twenty years old to marry—on one condition: “[I]f she is going to do something 
with some boy, to save myself I will have to get her married . . . Not all girls are good. To save their lives and 
dignity we have to get them married.” Id. at 52. 
 
21  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, “OUR TIME TO SING AND PLAY:” CHILD MARRIAGE IN NEPAL 41 (2016), 
https://www.hrw.org/sites/ default/files/report_pdf/nepal0816_web.pdf [https://perma.cc/75TY-XQJZ] 
[hereinafter HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, OUR TIME TO SING].  
 
22  BEN BAKER ET AL., PLAN UK, BEFORE THEIR TIME: CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING THE PROHIBITION 
AGAINST CHILD MARRIAGE IN SIERRA LEONE 16 (2013), https://plan-uk.org/file/beforetheirtimereportpdf/ 
download?token=-jpyqRik [https://perma.cc/FAM9-33X2] [hereinafter BAKER ET AL., BEFORE THEIR TIME].  
 
23  For example, Plan UK and HRW discuss this issue in Sierra Leone and Nepal, respectively. See id. at 16–
17; HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, OUR TIME TO SING, supra note 21, at 41–42. 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         103 

 
In some communities, families that resist marrying their daughters off face 

harassment, intimidation, and even assault.24 For example, HRW documented an instance 
in Bangladesh in which a boy feared his fourteen-year-old classmate would marry 
someone else, so he raped her “with the specific intention of forcing her to marry him.”25 
While the girl was too afraid to tell her parents, they found out after she became pregnant 
as a result of the rape. Fearing that the family’s reputation would be harmed if 
community members knew about the rape, the family did not report it to the police; 
instead, the girl dropped out of school, and her parents arranged a marriage to another 
man.26   

 
Many communities continue the practice of giving a dowry or brideprice at the time 

of a marriage. Dowry is a payment by the bride’s family to the groom’s family, while 
brideprice is a payment by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. Both practices have 
harmful consequences for girls and women, which may include violence and earlier 
marriage.27  

 
The consequences of child marriage are profound and have lifelong impact. Child 

marriage is associated with an increased risk of experiencing medical problems, losing 
 

 
24  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 9, 25, 56–59.  
 
25  Id. at 56. 
 
26  Id. at 57.  
 
27  For instance, families may feel under pressure to accept a proposal that either comes too early or is from a 
family where a bride is at risk of abuse or misery if the family is unable to pay the necessary dowry for a 
“better” marriage. This pressure can be compounded by the fact that, in some cultures, the amount of dowry 
expected increases as the bride gets older. In such a context, girls may feel pressure to accept a proposal at a 
younger age to avoid placing difficult or impossible financial burdens on their families. Anger over a dowry 
promise which has not been kept, or a dowry lower than a groom’s family wanted is sometimes a trigger for 
domestic violence. When brideprice is paid, wives sometimes find themselves barred from fleeing abuse 
because the groom’s family has “paid for them” and would expect that money to be repaid if she left. Anger 
over the cost of an inadequate brideprice is sometimes a trigger for abuse of a young bride. See HUMAN 
RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 60–61; Jamil Ddamulira 
Mujuzi, Bride Wealth (Price) and Women’s Marriage—Related Rights in Uganda: A Historical 
Constitutional Perspective and Current Developments, 24 INT’L J.L. POL’Y & FAM. 414 (2010); REP. OF THE 
EXPERT GROUP MEETING OF THE UNITED NATIONS DIV. FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN & UNITED 
NATIONS ECON. COMM’N FOR AFRICA, GOOD PRACTICES IN LEGISLATION ON “HARMFUL PRACTICES” AGAINST 
WOMEN (May 29, 2009), http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw_legislation_2009/Report%20 
EGM%20harmful%20practices.pdf [https://perma.cc/KF7D-UTYG]. 
 



 
104 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

access to education, living in poverty, and being a victim of violence, including sexual 
violence, and abuse.28 

 
Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant immediately. They also 

often lack information about contraception and the agency that would allow them to 
access and use contraceptive supplies.29 These factors lead to married girls often having 
early and closely spaced pregnancies. They are also at heightened risk of contracting 
sexually transmitted infections, being exposed to HIV, and having unwanted 
pregnancies.30 

 
Early, repeated, and closely-spaced pregnancies before a girl’s body is fully 

physically developed create serious medical risks, including the risk of death, for both 
girls and their babies.31 Globally, young girls are more at risk during childbirth than 
women aged twenty through twenty-four: Death is five times more likely for those 
between the ages of ten to fourteen and two times more likely for those aged fifteen to 
nineteen.32 Other common complications arising from early childbirth include fistula, 
hemorrhaging, low birth weight, and obstructed labor.33   

 
There is often a sizable age difference between the husband and the bride in child 

marriage. Typically, the girl has moved into the husband’s house, where she has new 

 
28  LOAIZA & WONG, MARRYING TOO YOUNG, supra note 14. 
 
29  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 9; AMY FISCHER, 
CARE INT’L, HOPE DRIES UP? WOMEN AND GIRLS COPING WITH DROUGHT AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN 
MOZAMBIQUE (Johanna Mitscherlich ed., 2016), http://careclimatechange.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/11/El_Nino_Mozambique_Report_final.pdf [https://perma.cc/3D5W-LRFD] 
[hereinafter FISCHER, HOPE DRIES UP?]. 
 
30  LOAIZA & WONG, MARRYING TOO YOUNG, supra note 14, at 11. 
 
31  Id. at 13. 
 
32  Andrea Nove et al., Maternal Mortality in Adolescents Compared with Women of Other Ages: Evidence 
from 144 Countries, 2 LANCET GLOBAL HEALTH 156 (2014); WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, WHO 
GUIDELINES ON PREVENTING EARLY PREGNANCY AND POOR REPRODUCTIVE OUTCOMES AMONG ADOLESCENTS 
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 2 (2011), 
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44691/9789241502214_eng.pdf;jsessionid=A7DBFB7E39F6
DBA136863EAD302F1639?sequence=1 [https://perma.cc/WVS8-ZRGU]. 
 
33  Nawal M. Nour, Child Marriage: A Silent Health and Human Rights Issue, 2 REV. OBSTETRICS & 
GYNECOLOGY 51, 54 (2009).  
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         105 

responsibilities, a lack of decision-making power or independence, and is cut off from the 
support of her family and friends. These factors can heighten girls’ vulnerability to abuse 
in the home.34 Girls may also be at risk of abuse or abandonment if they fail to become 
pregnant or give birth to sons.35 

 
Girls married at a young age face increased risk of domestic violence and physical, 

sexual, and psychological abuse, including rape.36 A girl married before the age of 
eighteen is twice as likely to experience domestic violence than an adult bride.37 In both 
India and the Dominican Republic, women who married before the age of fifteen were 
found to be more than three times more likely to have experienced spousal abuse in the 
previous year than women who had married over the age of twenty-five.38  

 
Lack of access to education is both a cause and a consequence of child marriage. A 

combination of “domestic burdens, childbearing, and social norms” often makes it 
impossible for married girls to continue studying.39 A World Bank study showed that 
every year of marriage under the age of eighteen was accompanied by a “6% decrease in 
the probability of literacy and secondary school completion.”40  

 
When child marriage impedes access to education, it not only denies girls the right to 

education, but also restricts their employment opportunities and decreases their economic 

 
34  Rangita de Silva-de-Alwis, United Nations Children’s Fund, Child Marriage and the Law: Legislative 
Reform Initiative Paper Series (UNICEF, Working Paper, Jan. 2008), 
https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Child_Marriage_and_the_Law[1].pdf [https://perma.cc/7PH8-SCR6] 
 
35  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, OUR TIME TO SING, supra note 21, at 40, 57–58. 
 
36  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 72–78. 
 
37  Lauro Giovanna & Margaret E. Greene, Child Marriage: A ‘Universal’ Issue, A MENCARE BLOG (Oct. 
11, 2013), https://mencarecampaign.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/child-marriage-a-universal-issue/ 
[https://perma.cc/X3NY-W7DY]. 
 
38  Sunita Kishor & Kiersten Johnson, Profiling Domestic Violence—A Multi-Country Study, ORC MACRO 
(2004), https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/od31/od31.pdf [https://perma.cc/6MAV-X8WS]. 
 
39  Silva-de-Alwis, Child Marriage and the Law: Legislative Reform Initiative Paper Series, supra note 34, 
at 36. 
 
40  ALISON M. GLINSKI ET AL., USAID, CHILD, EARLY, AND FORCED MARRIAGE RESOURCE GUIDE 9 (2015), 
https://www.usaid.gov/ sites/default/files/documents/1865/USAID_CEFM_Resource-Guide.PDF 
[https://perma.cc/KKS4-NMDC] [hereinafter GLINSKI ET AL., CHILD, EARLY, AND FORCED MARRIAGE]. 
 



 
106 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

security.41 Deprivation passes through the generations: The children of child brides are 
also “more likely to be poor and uneducated.”42  
 

B. Research and Monitoring of Whether Climate Change Increases the 
Risk of Child Marriage 
 

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”), a body of leading 
climate scientists, notes that “[h]uman influence on the climate system is clear, and recent 
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history.”43 Their most 
recent report stated that “[h]uman activities are estimated to have caused approximately 
1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels . . . Global warming is likely to reach 
1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.”44  

 
The impacts of this warming system have been experienced around the world. 

Climate scientists have attributed both the increasing frequency of specific extreme 
weather events (such as drought, flooding, and heat shocks) and the slow but steady 
change in long-term features of the environment (such as receding glaciers and melting 
permafrost) to rising temperatures caused predominantly by anthropogenic (i.e. human) 
sources.45 They predict that these and other observed climate changes will become more 
severe in coming years, stating with high confidence that “[r]obust global differences in 
temperature means and extremes are expected if global warming reaches 1.5°C versus 
2°C above the pre-industrial levels.”46 The IPCC noted, with high confidence, that 

 
41  BAKER ET AL., BEFORE THEIR TIME, supra note 22, at 18.  
 
42  Id. 
 
43  RAJENDRA K. PACHAURI ET AL., INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE CHANGE 
2014 SYNTHESIS REPORT 2 (Pachauri et al. eds., 2014), https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-
report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full_wcover.pdf [https://perma.cc/97GP-CZSP] 
 
44  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Summary for Policymakers, in GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5°C, 
AN IPCC SPECIAL REPORT ON THE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING 1.5°C ABOVE PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS AND 
RELATED GLOBAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS PATHWAYS, IN THE CONTEXT OF STRENGTHENING THE GLOBAL 
RESPONSE TO THE THREATS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND EFFORTS TO ERADICATE 
POVERTY 6 (V. Masson-Delmotte et al. eds., 2018), https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/07/ 
SR15_SPM_version_stand_alone_LR.pdf [https://perma.cc/FEZ4-7YSS] [hereinafter IPCC, Summary for 
Policymakers]. 
 
45  Id. at 6, 10.  
 
46  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming on Natural and Human 
Systems, in GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5°C, AN IPCC SPECIAL REPORT ON THE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING OF 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         107 

response “[w]arming of 1.5°C is not considered ‘safe’ for most nations, communities, 
ecosystems and sectors and poses significant risks to natural and human systems as 
compared to the current warming of 1°C.”47 Some of the increased risks and impacts that 
may be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius are detailed by the 
IPCC48 as follows: 

  
Figure 1: Projected Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees Celsius Versus 2 Degrees 

Celsius Above Pre-industrial Levels 
 

Impacts 1.5 degrees Celsius 2 degrees Celsius 

Water 
Scarcity 

496 million people exposed and 
vulnerable to water stress 

586 million people exposed and 
vulnerable to water stress 

Coastal Cities 31–69 million people exposed to 
coastal flooding 

32–79 million people exposed to 
coastal flooding 

Food Systems Significant declines in crop 
yields avoided, some yields may 
increase 

Average crop yields decline 
 

32–36 million people exposed to 
lower yields 

330–396 million people exposed to 
lower yields 

Health Lower risk of temperature-
related morbidity and smaller 
mosquito range 

Higher risks of temperature-related 
morbidity and mortality and larger 
geographic range of mosquitoes  

 
1.5°C ABOVE PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS AND RELATED GLOBAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION PATHWAYS, IN THE 
CONTEXT OF STRENGTHENING THE GLOBAL RESPONSE TO THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, SUSTAINABLE 
DEVELOPMENT, AND EFFORTS TO ERADICATE POVERTY 177 (V. Masson-Delmotte et al. eds., 2018) 
[hereinafter IPCC, Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming]. 
 
47  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sustainable Development, Poverty Eradication and 
Reducing Inequalities, in GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5°C, AN IPCC SPECIAL REPORT ON THE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL 
WARMING OF 1.5°C ABOVE PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS AND RELATED GLOBAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION 
PATHWAYS, IN THE CONTEXT OF STRENGTHENING THE GLOBAL RESPONSE TO THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND EFFORTS TO ERADICATE POVERTY 447 (V. Masson-Delmotte et al. eds., 
2018) [hereinafter IPCC, Sustainable Development, Poverty Eradication]. 
 
48  Id. at 453. 
 



 
108 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

3,546–4,508 million people 
exposed to heat waves 

5,417–6,710 million people 
exposed to heat waves 

  
These changes in the climate system are imposing an increasing burden on 

governments, especially in countries with limited resources, in their efforts to protect 
vulnerable populations and realize human rights.49 Changing precipitation patterns, such 
as drought and shorter but more intense rainfall, can have negative direct and indirect 
impacts on health and can contribute to desertification and flooding, food insecurity, 
migration, and increased conflict. Indigenous populations, poor and socially marginalized 
individuals, women, and people with disabilities are often most affected. 

 
A growing body of work has examined—and sought greater attention by 

policymakers—the many ways in which the effects of climate change have a 
disproportionate impact on women and girls.50 Just a few examples of this 
disproportionate impact include: women and girls having greater responsibility for 
obtaining water, fuel, and food for their families, and facing new obstacles due to climate 
change; greater susceptibility of women and children to some forms of contamination 
diseases associated with climate change; escalations of violence against women and girls, 
including sexual violence, in the wake of disaster; and ways in which existing forms of 

 
49  See Kirk R. Smith et al., Human Health: Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits, in CLIMATE CHANGE 
2014: IMPACTS, ADAPTATION, AND VULNERABILITY PART A: GLOBAL AND SECTORAL ASPECTS CONTRIBUTION 
OF WORKING GROUP II TO THE FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORTS OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE 
CHANGE 742 (C.B. Field et al. eds., 2014); FRIEDRICH SOLTAU, FAIRNESS IN INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE 
CHANGE LAW & POLICY 32 (2009). 
 
50  See, e.g., Comm. on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 
37 on Gender-Related Dimensions of Disaster Risk Reduction in the Context of Climate Change, U.N. Doc. 
CEDAW/C/GC/37 (2018) [hereinafter General Recommendation No. 37]; Anne Barre et al., From 
Marrakesh to Marrakesh: The Rise of Gender Equality in the Global Climate Governance and Climate 
Action, in ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CLIMATE GOVERNANCE 239–50 (Sébastien Duyck 
et al. eds., 2018); Joni Pegram, Overlooked and Undermined: Child Rights and Climate Change, in 
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND CLIMATE GOVERNANCE 259–65 (Sébastien Duyck et al. eds., 
2018); FISCHER, HOPE DRIES UP?, supra note 29; SWARUP ET AL., WEATHERING THE STORM, supra note 3, at 
18; GERALDINE TERRY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND GENDER JUSTICE (Oxfam GB eds., 2009); IRENE DANKELMAN 
ET AL., ELIAMEP, GENDER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN SECURITY LESSONS FROM BANGLADESH, GHANA 
AND SENEGAL 48 (Anna Grossman & Cate Owren eds., 2008), https://www.gdnonline.org/resources/ 
WEDO_Gender_CC_Human_Security.pdf [https://perma.cc/52GT-JYX6] [hereinafter DANKELMAN ET AL., 
GENDER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN SECURITY]; Fatma Denton, Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts, 
and Adaptation: Why Does Gender Matter?, 10 GENDER & DEV. 10 (2002). 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         109 

gender discrimination make it harder for women to access assistance and compensation 
provided to those affected by climate change and disasters.51 

 
At the same time, there has been growing global attention to the impact and prevalence of 
child marriage, and a concerted push to end child marriage. This attention has included: a 
series of resolutions at the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council calling for 
an end to child marriage; the creation of Girls Not Brides, a global network of 
organizations working to end child marriage; a series of “Girl Summits” in several 
countries and regions focused on ending child marriage (sometimes alongside a focus on 
ending female genital mutilation); the development of “national action plans” on ending 
child marriage in a number of countries; and a target in the Sustainable Development 
Goals, under which all countries are committed to ending child marriage by 2030.52 

 
These two discussions have prompted growing attention by academics, international 

organizations, and journalists to the question of whether the impacts of climate change 
can increase the risk of child marriage. An oft-cited paper establishing this potential 
connection is Christopher Eldridge’s 2002 piece, “Why was there no famine following 
the 1992 Southern African drought? The contributions and consequences of household 
responses”, in which he noted that a few families had mitigated the impact of the drought 
by arranging earlier marriages for their daughters, driven by the fact that the union’s 
brideprice would bring additional money or livestock.53 

 
In 2009, Jonas Ø Nielsen published a book chapter advocating for a livelihood 

strategies analysis approach to be utilized to understand the connection between child 
marriage and adaptation measures taken in response to climate change, drawing from the 

 
51  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION 
AGAINST WOMEN ON “GENDER-RELATED DIMENSIONS OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE” 
3–5, 7 (2016) https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact= 
8&ved=0ahUKEwiag97tvrTaAhUJIMAKHV1oB04QFggtMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohchr.org%2F
Documents%2FHRBodies%2FCEDAW%2FClimateChange%2FHumanRightsWatch.doc&usg=AOvVaw1p
D6AC-fPqUmyb0h1hbUwb [https://perma.cc/4RPH-ZXBA]. 
 
52  The fifth Sustainable Development Goal, which calls for gender equality and the empowerment of all 
women and girls, compels all countries to create such a plan to end all child marriage by 2030. See G.A. Res. 
70/1, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 18 (Sept. 25, 2015). 
 
53  Christopher Eldridge, Why Was There No Famine Following the 1992 Southern African Drought? The 
Contributions and Consequences of Household Responses, 33 IDS BULL. 1, 3 (2002).  
 



 
110 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

experiences of a village in Burkina Faso in response to a drought.54 One year later, in a 
piece on the effects of climate change in Kenya’s Rift Valley, Amy North discussed the 
potential use of “famine-brides” as a response measure to drought-induced poverty, citing 
the use of this practice in neighboring Uganda in response to both droughts and 
flooding.55 

 
In 2011, Caroline Archambault detailed the social context in which Maasai girls in a 

Kenyan community were being married in order to consider how child marriage may also 
be used as an adaptation strategy to respond to livelihood insecurity, which is frequently 
linked to or exacerbated by climate change.56 The research found that “the combined 
forces of land and resource fragmentation and dispossession, which have been 
accelerated by recent land-tenure reforms, increased climactic instability, continued state 
neglect, and increasing population pressure” had made pastoralism an incredibly 
challenging lifestyle.57 Over the past few decades, livestock holdings had fallen below a 
level needed for subsistence; coupled with severe droughts—such as the drought that 
occurred in 2000 and decimated approximately eighty percent of cattle—it was difficult 
for many pastoralists in this community to provide for their families.58 In struggling to 
provide food and education for their children, many parents felt pressure to have their 
daughters marry young in order to reduce their family size and try to secure their 
daughter’s future.  

 
In 2014, Margaret Alston et al. drew a link between climate change, child marriage 

and the practice of dowry. Drawing from the results of their three-year research study in 
Bangladesh, they argued that economic crises largely induced by climate change caused 
an increase in child marriages. Because the amount of dowry expected increased as the 
bride gets older, girls were married at a younger age to reduce this burden.59 

 
54  Jonas Ø Nielsen, Drought and Marriage: Exploring the Interconnection Between Climate Variability and 
5Social Change Through a Livelihood Perspective, in THE QUESTION OF RESILIENCE: SOCIAL RESPONSES TO 
CLIMATE CHANGE 159, 160–61 (Kirsten Hastrup ed., 2009). 
 
55  Amy North, Drought, Drop Out and Early Marriage: Feeling the Effects of Climate Change in East 
Africa, 24 BEYOND ACCESS: GENDER EDUC. & DEV. 6 (2010). 
 
56  Archambault, Ethnographic Empathy, supra note 13. 
 
57  Id. at 636.  
 
58  Id. 
 
59  Alston, Are Climate Challenges Reinforcing Child and Forced Marriage, supra note 3. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         111 

 
There is still little quantitative evidence, however, that establishes this link. 

Executive Director Mac Bain Mkandawire of Youth Net and Counselling, a Malawi-
based organization that campaigns for women’s and children’s rights, offers an 
explanation for why this emerging conversation lacks detailed figures. First, he notes that 
“no one has previously thought to connect the two issues and to ask the right 
questions.”60 Secondly, governments in countries most affected by climate change do not 
necessarily have robust systems for monitoring, documenting, and responding to 
environmental changes, and affected locations are sometimes in remote and marginalized 
areas of the country. A photojournalist covering the issue told the Guardian, “[a]ll they 
[people in affected areas] knew was that the weather had changed and that where they 
used to be able to pay for their girls to go through school now they couldn’t. And the only 
solution was for one or more daughters to get married.”61  
 

Another challenge is the attribution of specific impacts to climate change. Climate 
impacts are complex and can be difficult to attribute at a local level. Not all natural 
disasters and extreme weather events are induced by climate change impacts. In some 
situations, an event may be partially attributed to climate change, its impacts may be 
exacerbated by climate change, or it may simply be the result of natural weather systems 
independent of climate change impacts.   

 
The IPCC has, however, recognized that “[a] changing climate leads to changes in 

the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing of extreme weather and 
climate events, and can result in unprecedented extreme weather and climate events.”62 
From 2000 to 2009, there were three times as many natural disasters around the world as 
from 1980 to 1989—and climate-related events accounted for almost eighty percent of 
this increase.63  

 
 

60  Gethin Chamberlain, Why Climate Change is Creating a Generation of Child Brides, GUARDIAN (Nov. 
26, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/26/climate-change-creating-generation-of-child-
brides-in-africa [https://perma.cc/YK5G-ZKPZ].  
 
61  Id. 
 
62  INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE, MANAGING THE RISKS OF EXTREME EVENTS AND 
DISASTERS TO ADVANCE CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: A SPECIAL REPORT OF WORKING GROUPS I AND II OF 
THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE 7 (Christopher B. Field et al. eds., 2012). 
 
63  Jennifer Leaning & Debarati Guha-Sapir, Natural Disasters, Armed Conflict, & Public Health, 369 N. 
ENGL. J. MED. 1836 (2013).   
 



 
112 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

 Countries with the highest rates of child marriage also rank among those vulnerable 
to climate change and natural disasters. However, there is currently no quantitative 
research about the specific nature of this relationship.  
  

Figure 2: Climate Vulnerability of Countries with the Highest Rates of Child Marriage 
 

Country Rate of Child 
Marriage Ranking64 

ND-GAIN Vulnerability 
Rankings*65 

Human Development 
Index Ranking**66 

Niger 1 181 189 

Central African 
Republic 

2 164 188 

Chad 3 179 186 

Bangladesh 4 149 136 

Mali 5 173 182*** 

*1 is considered least vulnerable to climate change 
**1 is considered to have the highest level of human development based on the index’s 

 
64  These rankings are based on the 2017 UNICEF State of the World’s Children Data. UNICEF does not 
provide rankings—they just report country by country data. The authors of this paper have reviewed the data 
for the proportion of girls married before the age of eighteen, compared countries, and derived this ranking 
from that analysis. See UNICEF Statistical Tables, supra note 8, at 182–84. 
 
65  The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative’s Vulnerability Ranking assesses three components 
(exposure to hazards, sensitivity to impacts of hazards, and adaptive capacity) across six sectors that support 
human life (health, food, ecosystems, human habitat, water, and infrastructure) to determine the  
“[p]ropensity or predisposition of human societies to be negatively impacted by climate hazards.” This 
ranking assessed 182 countries for the year 2016. C. CHEN ET AL., UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME GLOBAL 
ADAPTATION INDEX COUNTRY INDEX TECHNICAL REPORT 3 (2015) https://gain.nd.edu/assets/254377/nd_gain_ 
technical_document_2015.pdf; NOTRE DAME GLOBAL ADAPTATION INITIATIVE: RANKINGS, 
https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/rankings/ [https://perma.cc/CBU8-EJW9] [hereinafter 
RANKINGS]. 
 
66  The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index is a widely recognized 
ranking system based on the average longevity, education, and income of a country’s population. The scores 
listed are for the year 2017. UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: TABLE 1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 
INDEX AND ITS COMPONENTS, http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI [https://perma.cc/RHA8-CU2B] 
[hereinafter HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX]. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         113 

criteria 
***Multiple countries (including South Sudan, Guinea, and Burkina Faso) are tied for 
this ranking 

 
According to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative’s Climate Change 

Vulnerability Ranking, four of the five countries with the highest rates of child marriage 
were within the top ten percent of most climate vulnerable countries.67 Although varying 
in their precise vulnerability rankings, a common thread among these countries is the fact 
that they are also among some of the poorest countries in the world, as demonstrated by 
their rankings on the Human Development Index. This poverty increases the risk of child 
marriage and makes both governments and communities less able to respond to climate 
change and its impacts. The IPCC notes that,  
 

At approximately 1.5°C of global warming (2030), climate change is 
expected to be a poverty multiplier that makes poor people poorer and 
increases the poverty head count . . . Climate change alone could force 
more than 3 million to 16 million people into extreme poverty, mostly 
through impacts on agriculture and food prices . . . The most severe 
impacts are projected for urban areas and some rural regions in sub-
Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.68 

 
As environmental changes are influenced by a variety of complex factors, and a 

family or child’s decision to enter into a child marriage may be influenced by multiple 
linked considerations, it is difficult to establish a conclusive connection between climate 
change and child marriage. As climate change continues to alter the frequency and 
severity of extreme weather events in the future,69 however, understanding how child 
marriage rates can be impacted by disasters will be of immense importance. 

 
While robust scientific data is still lacking, qualitative research in humanitarian 

settings suggest a correlation between high rates of child marriage and climate change.70 

 
67  Vulnerability measures a country’s exposure, sensitivity, and ability to adapt to the negative impacts of 
climate change.  
 
68  IPCC, Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming, supra note 46, at 244. 
 
69  PACHAURI ET AL., CLIMATE CHANGE 2014 SYNTHESIS REPORT, supra note 43. 
 
70  See, e.g., GIRLS NOT BRIDES, CHILD MARRIAGE IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS (2017), 
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Girls-Not-Brides_Child-marriage-in-
humanitarian-settings_ENG.pdf [perma.cc/q3lv-q67y]; NIKKI VAN DER GAAG, IN DOUBLE JEOPARDY: 



 
114 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

Lakshmi Sundaram, the Executive Director of Girls Not Brides, stated in 2017 that, “[i]n 
the last few years we’ve seen growing evidence that girls in humanitarian situations are 
particularly vulnerable to child marriage.”71 HRW, in a 2015 study of child marriage in 
Bangladesh, reached a similar conclusion: “Families interviewed for this report indicated 
that a cyclone, another flood, an especially high or long flood, or the arrival of river 
erosion at their doorstep can push a family from a situation where they are barely 
managing to get from one day to the next to one where child marriage becomes part of a 
desperate survival strategy.”72 

 
Natural disasters and extreme weather events, such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, 

and tsunamis, can quickly devastate an entire community or city. If a family’s home is 
damaged or destroyed, they may face property damage and displacement. Spikes in 
violence against women and girls, including sexual violence, often occur after a disaster, 
and families sometimes see marriage as a way to protect girls from these threats.73 

Economic opportunities decrease and poverty is exacerbated. If schools are damaged or 
destroyed, children may lose access to education. These are all factors that can increase 
child marriage rates in a community or area,74 particularly if the parents view early 
marriage as “a more palatable option” than these threats.75 As USAID stated, “[a]ll of the 
major drivers of child marriage are heightened by the anxiety, uncertainty, and lack of 
control that exist in conflict and natural-disaster scenarios.”76 

 

 
ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND DISASTERS 76–78 (Sharon Goulds ed., 7th ed. 2013), https://plancanada.ca/file/ 
planv4_files/biaag/BIAAG2013ReportInDoubleJeopardyENG.pdf [perma.cc/l9xm-sxdh] [hereinafter VAN 
DER GAAG, IN DOUBLE JEOPARDY]; Lemmon, Fragile States, Fragile Lives, supra note 3. 
 
71  Sarwit Nasir, Child Marriages Rising, But Brave Girls Fight Back, KHALEEJ TIMES (Mar. 23, 2017), 
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/general/child-marriages-rising-but-brave-girls-fight-back 
[perma.cc/z2sl-rt43].   
 
72  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 42. 
 
73  GIRLS NOT BRIDES, CHILD MARRIAGE IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS, supra note 70, at 3. 
 
74  Lakshmi Sundaram, How Climate Change Drives Child Marriage, NEWSDEEPLY (Nov. 6, 2017), 
https://www.newsdeeply. com/womenandgirls/community/2017/11/06/how-climate-change-drives-child-
marriage [perma.cc/lqr9-kvrc] 
 
75  Lemmon, Fragile States, Fragile Lives, supra note 3, at 3.  
 
76  GLINSKI ET AL., CHILD, EARLY, AND FORCED MARRIAGE, supra note 40, at 12.  
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         115 

Child marriages have been reported as a response to famines, droughts, and floods—
and their associated impacts—in the following instances: 

• Uganda: Plan International reported that exchanging girls (to be married) for 
brideprice was a response to a food crisis associated with climate change.77  

• Kenya, Sahel: Girls Not Brides stated that child marriage was used as a 
coping mechanism to provide “a safer or more food secure household for 
daughters” during droughts in Kenya and the Sahel (which occurred in 2010 
and 2012, respectively).78 

• Pakistan: Girls Not Brides, as well as Interact Worldwide and Plan 
International, reported an increased occurrence of child marriage following 
the 2010 Pakistan floods.79 

• In South Sudan, the Guardian reported in 2017 that “[a] combination of 
violence and drought devastated last year’s harvests, creating food shortages 
that have left 100,000 people facing famine and another one million at 
risk.”80 This insecurity forced many families to marry off their girls. In some 
cases, girls were married so that their dowry could be used as a brideprice for 
their brother or father to marry someone.81  

• UNICEF noted that child marriage was used as a survival strategy in Niger in 
response to drought.82 
 

 
77  VAN DER GAAG, IN DOUBLE JEOPARDY, supra note 70, at 76. 
 
78  GIRLS NOT BRIDES, TAKING ACTION TO ADDRESS CHILD MARRIAGE: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT SECTORS, 
BRIEF 7: AGRICULTURE, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT 1 (Mar. 7, 2016), https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/ 
wp-content/uploads/2016/03/7.-Addressing-child-marriage-Agriculture-and-the-Environment.pdf 
[perma.cc/hw4f-bahk]. 
 
79  Id.; SWARUP ET AL., WEATHERING THE STORM, supra note 3, at 19. 
 
80  Gethin Chamberlain, South Sudan’s Battle for Cattle is Forcing Schoolgirls to Become Teenage Brides, 
GUARDIAN (Jun. 8, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jun/08/south-sudan-battle-
for-cattle-is-forcing-schoolgirls-to-become-teenage-brides [perma.cc/m57g-ctav] [hereinafter Chamberlain, 
South Sudan]. It is unclear how much of the food insecurity is due to the drought or is to be attributed to the 
country’s ongoing civil war. See also Jan Selby et al., Climate Change and the Syrian Civil War Revisited: A 
Rejoinder, 60 POL. GEOGRAPHY 253 (2017); Peter H. Gleick, Climate, Water, and Conflict: Commentary on 
Selby et al. 2017, 60 POL. GEOGRAPHY 248 (2017); Colni Kelley et al., Commentary on the Syria Case: 
Climate as a Contributing Factor, 60 POL. GEOGRAPHY 245 (2017); Jan Selby et al., Climate Change and the 
Syrian Civil War Revisited, 60 POL. GEOGRAPHY 232 (2017); 
 
81  Chamberlain, South Sudan, supra note 80. 
 
82  Lemmon, Fragile States, Fragile Lives, supra note 3, at 6.  



 
116 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

These instances suggest that the risk of child marriage may be increased by 
disasters—several of which may be linked to climate change. The following section 
examines country case studies in Bangladesh and Mozambique to further explore what 
the link between climate change and child marriage might be.  
 

II. Case Studies 
 

Bangladesh and Mozambique are highly vulnerable to climate change and have rates 
of child marriage among the highest in the world.83 Both countries have developed new 
policies within the last three years to address child marriage. Additionally, Mozambique 
was the first government in the world to create a Climate Change and Gender Action Plan 
in 2010.84 
 

A. Bangladesh  
 

With a current population of over 167 million people,85 Bangladesh is one of the most 
densely populated countries in the world. While Bangladesh has made impressive strides 
in reducing poverty levels, 24.3% of its population remains impoverished and another 
12.9% lives in extreme poverty.86 A deepening political crisis and growing human rights 
abuses threaten the country’s progress.87 

 
 
83  Bangladesh and Mozambique have the fourth and ninth highest percentage of girls married by age 
eighteen, respectively. See UNICEF Statistical Tables, supra note 8, at 182–83. The ND-Gain Vulnerability 
Ranking, which ranks countries from least to most vulnerable to impacts of climate change, placed 
Bangladesh and Mozambique 149th and 146th, respectively, out of 181 countries assessed. RANKINGS, supra 
note 65. 
 
84  LORENA AGUILAR ET AL., INT’L UNION CONSERVATION OF NATURE GLOBAL GENDER OFFICE & AFRICAN 
FOUND. FOR SUSTAINABLE DEV. MOZAMBIQUE CHAPTER, CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER ACTION PLAN (PHASE II) 
FOR THE REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE (CCGAP:MZ) 6 (2014), https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/union/files/ 
doc/mozambique_0.pdf [perma.cc/8vdt-shya] [hereinafter MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER ACTION 
PLAN]. 
 
85  WORLDOMETERS: BANGLADESH POPULATION 2019, https://www.worldometers.info/world-
population/bangladesh-population/ [perma.cc/dc6l-7mj3]. 
 
86  Bangladesh Continues to Reduce Poverty but at Slower Pace, WORLD BANK (Oct. 24, 2017), 
https://www.worldbank.org/en/ news/feature/2017/10/24/bangladesh-continues-to-reduce-poverty-but-at-
slower-pace [perma.cc/p2ep-f542]. 
 
87  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, Bangladesh, in WORLD REPORT 2018: EVENTS OF 2017 65 (2018) 
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/Bangladesh [perma.cc/vp7x-amup]; Secret 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         117 

Bangladesh is a “disaster-prone” country. Eighty percent of Bangladesh’s lands are 
floodplains for the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna, and several other minor rivers.88 The 
seasonal flooding from these rivers often coincides with the cyclone season, and 
Bangladesh’s location on the Bay of Bengal, which is “highly vulnerable to inundation 
from cyclone-induced storm surges,”89 further increases its vulnerability.90 

 
Due to its geographic location, in an average year, one-quarter of Bangladesh is 

flooded. Every four to five years, a severe flood may engulf over sixty percent of the 
country.91  Increased rainfall resulting from climate change has been found to further 
intensify the extent of flooding in Bangladesh.92 In a global assessment of risk of 
exposure to flood, the 2018 Index for Risk Management placed Bangladesh within the 
top three of most at-risk countries.93 While this flooding and the resulting destruction of 

 
Detentions and Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (Jul. 6, 2017), 
https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/07/06/we-dont-have-him/secret-detentions-and-enforced-disappearances-
bangladesh [https://perma.cc/knm6-2s6l]; Nyshka Chandran, Deep Political Tensions Underline Bangladesh 
Violence, CNBC (Jun. 9, 2016), https://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/09/deep-political-tensions-underline-
bangladesh-violence.html [perma.cc/a5dx-wn2h]; Victor Mallet, Bangladesh Garment Trade Warns on 
Impact of Political Unrest, FIN. TIMES (Jan. 7, 2014), https://www.ft.com/content/ac162e66-7788-11e3-afc5-
00144feabdc0 [perma.cc/2h7d-ygt7].  
 
88  Shafi Noor Islam, Deltaic Floodplains Development and Wetland Ecosystems Management in the 
Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Rivers Delta in Bangladesh, 2 SUSTAINABLE WATER RES. MGMT. 237, 239 
(2016); Jessica M. Ayers & Saleemul Huq, The Value of Linking Mitigation and Adaptation: A Case Study of 
Bangladesh, 43 ENVTL. MGMT. 753, 758 (2008).  
 
89  Susmita Dasgupta et al., Cyclones in a Changing Climate: The Case of Bangladesh, 6 CLIMATE & DEV. 
96, 96 (2014). 
 
90  Ministry of Env’t & Forests, Gov’t of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Intended Nationally 
Determined Contributions (INDC), in U.N. FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE 54–55 (2015), 
https://unfccc.int/files/adaptation/ application/pdf/all__parties_indc.pdf [perma.cc/2ewf-tujk] [hereinafter 
Bangladesh, INDC].  
 
91  Robert Glennon, The Unfolding Tragedy of Climate Change in Bangladesh, SCIENTIFIC AM. (Apr. 21, 
2017), https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-unfolding-tragedy-of-climate-change-in-
bangladesh/ [perma.cc/9jls-2y49]. 
 
92  Roy Brouwer et al., Socioeconomic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Environmental Risk: A Case Study of 
Climate Change and Flooding in Bangladesh, 27 RISK ANALYSIS 313, 314 (2007). 
 
93  INDEX FOR RISK MGMT., INFORM GLOBAL RISK INDEX: RESULTS 2018 (4th ed. 2018), http://www.inform-
index.org/Portals/0/ InfoRM/2018/INFORM%20Annual%20Report%202018%20Web%20Spreads%20v2. 
pdf?ver=2017-12-20-141446-540 [perma.cc/cu8x-yqar]. 



 
118 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

crops has a devastating impact on food security, the fact that it occurs annually renders it 
a “foreseeable risk.”  

 
In addition to this known risk, however, Bangladesh also faces increasing droughts, 

storm surges, extreme temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, salinity intrusion, and ocean  
 
acidification as a result of climate change and other environmental changes.94 The 2018 
Index for Risk Management also ranked Bangladesh as the nineteenth most at-risk 
country for physical exposure to earthquakes and the twelfth most at-risk country for 
physical exposure to tsunamis.95Together, these phenomena substantiate both the World 
Bank’s labeling of Bangladesh as an “impact hotspot”96and the IPCC’s assertion that 
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.97 

 
Poor governance and inadequate policies and protections have compounded the 

problem, resulting in significant environmental degradation and other harms.98Many 

 
94  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 41; Bangladesh, 
INDC, supra note 90, at 2. 
 
95  INDEX FOR RISK MGMT., INFORM GLOBAL RISK INDEX: RESULTS 2018, supra note 93. 
 
96  HANS JOACHIM SCHELLNHUBER ET AL., POTSDAM INST. FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH & CLIMATE 
ANALYTICS, TURN DOWN THE HEAT: CLIMATE EXTREMES, REGIONAL IMPACTS, AND THE CASE FOR RESILIENCE 
110 (World Bank, 2013), http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/Full_Report_Vol_2_ 
Turn_Down_The_Heat_%20Climate_Extremes_Regional_Impacts_Case_for_Resilience_Print%20version_F
INAL.pdf [perma.cc/kx6f-s3f3]. 
 
97  INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE ET AL., REPORT ON BANGLADESH: LAUNCH OF THE 
FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT (AR5) OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) 3 
(2014), https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Report-on-IPCC-outreach-events-Bangladesh-.pdf 
[perma.cc/56gm-6frn]. The IPCC’s 2018 special report projected that by 2050, “damages and losses are 
expected for poor households [in Bangladesh] dependent on freshwater fish stocks due to lack of mobility, 
limited access to land and strong reliance on local ecosystems.” See IPCC, Sustainable Development, Poverty 
Eradication, supra note 47, at 452. The IPCC report also projects that Bangladesh will experience more 
floods if the global average warming temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels 
instead of being limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and details how sea-level rise at either scenario will increase 
coastal flooding in several countries, including Bangladesh. See IPCC, Impacts of 1.5°C Global Warming, 
supra note 46, at 203, 231. 
 
98  See, e.g., Bangladesh: 20 Million Drink Arsenic-Laced Water, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (Apr. 6, 2016), 
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/06/bangladesh-20-million-drink-arsenic-laced-water [perma.cc/6y4c-
nkr8]; Tanzim Afroz & Shawkat Alam, Sustainable Shrimp Farming in Bangladesh: A Quest for an 
Integrated Coastal Zone Management, 71 OCEAN & COASTAL MGMT. 275 (2013). 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         119 

Bangladeshis have little choice but to live in disaster-prone areas, increasing their 
vulnerability to the impacts of natural disasters.99 

 
Bangladesh also has a high prevalence of child marriage. With fifty-nine percent of 

the country’s girls wed by age eighteen and twenty-two percent married by age fifteen, 
Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, and the highest 
rate in Asia.100 As of 2007, the median age gap between spouses in Bangladesh was nine 
years.101 Poverty was the most frequently cited driver of child marriage in qualitative 
research that HRW conducted in 2014 on child marriage in Bangladesh.102 

 
HRW found that people in Bangladesh interviewed for its report who were affected 

by cyclical flooding, cyclones, and in particular, river erosion, provided some evidence to 
suggest that being a victim of these three types of disasters increased pressure on families 
to marry off their daughters.103 The evidence was most pronounced with regard to river 
erosion, for reasons related to the predictable and cataclysmic nature of this type of 
disaster. This potential connection between natural disasters and child marriage is 
discussed in greater detail below.  

 
Discriminatory gender roles in Bangladesh104 may cause girls to be 

disproportionately affected by poverty or displacement, which can be prompted or 
exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Because social norms place expectations 
on a daughter to get married and go live with her husband and his family, while the sons 
remain at home and help support their parents, “when parents cannot afford to feed or 
educate all of their children, it is usually girls’ futures that are sacrificed first.”105 

 
99  DANKELMAN ET AL., GENDER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN SECURITY, supra note 50, at 48. 
100  GIRLS NOT BRIDES: BANGLADESH, https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/bangladesh/ 
[perma.cc/4kbh-nweh].  
 
101  SARANGA JAIN & KATHLEEN KURZ, INT’L CTR. FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN, NEW INSIGHTS ON 
PREVENTING CHILD MARRIAGE: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AND PROGRAMS (U.S. Agency for Int’l 
Dev., 2007), https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/New-Insights-on-Preventing-Child-
Marriage.pdf [perma.cc/rsj8-ynde] [hereinafter JAIN & KURZ, NEW INSIGHTS]. 
 
102  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 13. 
 
103  Id. at 40–45. 
 
104  Id. at 38. 
 
105  Id. at 13. 
 



 
120 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

 
Research in Bangladesh echoes global findings about the link between access to 

education and child marriage. A 2012 study in Bangladesh found that, in comparing 
women with primary, secondary, and higher education against a woman who had 
received no formal education, women who had completed education were “respectively 
24%, 72%, and 94% less likely to marry at a young age.”106 

 
Another factor driving child marriage in Bangladesh is the fact that, despite being 

banned in 1980,107 providing a dowry is still a common practice. Dowries are often lower, 
or sometimes not demanded at all, for younger girls,108 which creates an incentive for 
families to marry their daughters off early.109 The one-time payment of a dowry in 
exchange for reducing family size is another incentive for financially struggling families 
to arrange early marriages for their daughters.110 Organizations working in Dhaka’s slums 
noted a high prevalence of girls leaving school to work, often as a maid or in the garment 
industry; most of these girls also married young, and few returned to school.111 

 
In some instances, environmental degradation led to child marriage being used as a 

reactive adaptation measure. One girl interviewed by HRW said, “[w]hatever land my 
father had and the house he had went under the water in the river erosion and that’s why 
my parents decided to get me married.” She was married at age fourteen, just a few 
months after her family’s home was lost.112  

 
A recent study compared the prevalence of child marriage in abasan and non-abasan 

communities in Bangladesh. An abasan community consists of low-cost housing that has 
 

106  S.M. Mostafa Kamal, Decline in Child Marriage and Changes in its Effect on Reproductive Outcomes in 
Bangladesh, 30 J. HEALTH POPULATION & NUTRITION 317 (2012). 
 
107  Dowry Prohibition Act, 1980 (Act No. 35/1980) (Bangl.). 
 
108  Sajeda Amin & Lopita Huq, Marriage Considerations in Sending Girls to School in Bangladesh: Some 
Qualitative Evidence 7 (Population Council, Working Paper No. 12, 2008), 
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LAm1aiQB5DoJ: 
https://www.popcouncil.org/uploads/pdfs/wp/pgy/012.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us 
[https://perma.cc/K9JS-YMA2]. 
 
109  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 60. 
 
110  Sundaram, How Climate Change Drives Child Marriage, supra note 74. 
 
111  GIRLS NOT BRIDES, CHILD MARRIAGE IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS, supra note 70. 
 
112  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 42. 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         121 

been provided by the government for vulnerable populations in rural areas who have been 
displaced from their communities, largely due to environmental changes attributed to 
climate change.113 After surveying 9,000 girls between the ages of twelve and nineteen, 
the study found that girls living in abasan communities were twice as likely to enter into a 
marriage than those in non-abasan communities.  

 
As discussed earlier in this paper, there is evidence of heightened risk of child 

marriage in the aftermath of extreme weather events which may have been exacerbated 
by the impact of climate change. In Bangladesh, HRW interviewed a number of girls and 
families who described child marriages in the wake of Cyclone Aila, a disaster which 
killed over 200 people and displaced more than 500,000 people in 2009.114 One girl 
HRW interviewed went to live with her aunt and uncle after both of her parents were 
killed by the cyclone. Her aunt and uncle were injured from the collapse of their house 
during the cyclone, and it was difficult for them to keep their own two children in school. 
Within a year, a marriage was arranged for this girl, who was wed at age thirteen.115 

 
Two years earlier, Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh’s southwest coast in 2007, killing an 

estimated 3,406 people and injuring more than 55,000 others.116 Several organizations 
documented a rise in child marriages following this disaster. In a submission to the Office 
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (“OHCHR”), World Vision 
UK noted that of the children under eighteen married within a five-year period, sixty-two 
percent married within the twelve months following Cyclone Sidr.117 Plan International 

 
 
113  Sigma Ainul & Sajeda Amin, Population Council, Presentation at the Population Association of 
America 2015 Annual Meeting, Session 113: Environmental Change, Migration, and Adaptation: 
Environmental Vulnerability and Early Marriage in Southern Bangladesh (May 1, 2015), 
https://paa2015.princeton.edu/papers/151345 [perma.cc/nzj8-5vs3]; Holly G. Atkinson, Adolescent Girls, 
Human Rights and the Expanding Climate Emergency, 81 ANNALS GLOBAL HEALTH 323 (2015); Mustafa K. 
Mujeri, Bangladesh Decent Work Statistical Indicators: A Fact-Finding Study (Int’l Labour Office, Working 
Paper No. 64, 2004), https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@integration/documents/ 
genericdocument/wcms_079516.pdf [perma.cc/y2nr-ab73]. 
 
114  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 43. 
 
115  Id. at 43.  
 
116  GOV’T. OF BANGL., CYCLONE SIDR IN BANGLADESH: DAMAGE, LOSS, AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR 
DISASTER RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION 5 (2008), https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/ 
F2FDFF067EF49C8DC12574DC00455142-Full_Report.pdf [https://perma.cc/42VA-JEHJ]. 
 
117  Submission from World Vision UK to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights: Early Marriage in Humanitarian Crises (2013) (on file with the Office of the United Nations High 



 
122 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

also found that the number of child marriages had increased after Cyclone Sidr; one girl 
they interviewed stated that “as many as 50% of the girls in her school dropped out 
because they got married.”118 The Government of Bangladesh’s Department of 
Environment also noted that girls are often forced into marriages when their schooling is 
interrupted by a flood, noting that the disruption often continues after the flood has ended 
as schools tend to be used as flood shelters for displaced families.119 

 
Child marriage may also be a response to slow-onset disasters in Bangladesh. For 

instance, the island of Kutubdia’s shorelines have retreated by about a kilometer since the 
1960s. In that time, rising sea levels have swallowed up residents’ lands, displacing 
thousands. Nurul Haque, a farmer on Kutubdia, is one of many who have lost their land 
to the ocean. Nurul told the New York Times that, although he does not want to arrange a 
marriage for his thirteen-year-old daughter, he is considering it.120 

  
HRW found that some families arranged marriages proactively in anticipation of an 

impending disaster, particularly in areas affected by river erosion, an event that is 
gradual, predictable, and catastrophic for those affected. As a charity worker explained to 
HRW: 

 
Families think that if their house goes they’ll have to go to another place 
and it will take time to get established and find a husband and meanwhile 
the girl is getting older and dowry is going up. Also, when they have a 
house, before it is taken [by the river], the in-laws families will think the 
family owns a house, which gives them more importance. After [the 
house is swept away] they might rent and that makes them less important 
and means less status for the girl [and less bargaining power in arranging 
a marriage].121 

 
 

Commissioner for Human Rights), https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/ 
ForcedMarriage/NGO/WorldVisionUK1.doc [https://perma.cc/EYM8-Y4XJ].  
 
118  SWARUP ET AL., WEATHERING THE STORM, supra note 3. 
 
119  CLIMATE CHANGE CELL, CLIMATE CHANGE, GENDER AND VULNERABLE GROUPS IN BANGLADESH 42 
(CCC, DoE, MoEF, Component 4b, CDMP, MoFDM, 2008), https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48024281.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/W96F-XNKE]. 
 
120  Nicholas Kristof, Swallowed by the Sea, N.Y. TIMES (Jan. 19, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/ 
19/opinion/sunday/climate-change-bangladesh.html [https://perma.cc/CA34-9Y9Z]. 
 
121  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 42. 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         123 

Some families chose to marry off several girls before disaster struck. One family 
interviewed by HRW had been watching a nearby river creep closer each year. Expecting 
to lose their home within the next few years, they arranged a marriage for their eldest 
daughter when she was only thirteen, so that they could begin arranging marriages for her 
three younger sisters.122 

 
1. Child Marriage Legislation  

 
Under Bangladesh’s Child Marriage Restraint Act (“CMRA”), the minimum legal 

age of marriage is eighteen for women and twenty-one for men.123 A new amendment 
passed in March 2017, however, added an exception permitting younger girls to marry in 
vaguely-defined “special” circumstances with parental consent and permission from the 
courts.124 The government previously stated this provision was to provide a response for 
“situations involving ‘accidental or unlawful pregnancy’ of unwed girls.”125 This 
provision does not contain a minimum age, effectively permitting girls of any age to 
marriage under some circumstances.  

 
This provision makes Bangladesh unique in having moved backwards legislatively 

on child marriage at a moment when many other countries are passing laws to further 
restrict or entirely prohibit child marriage. This regression also contradicts pledges made 
by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the London Girls Summit in 2014, where 
she committed to eliminate the marriage of girls under fifteen by 2021, reduce the 
number of girls aged fifteen to eighteen who marry by one-third in this timeframe, and 

 
 
122  Id. at 43. 
 
123  Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, entered into force Apr. 1, 1930 (Act No. 19/1929) (Bangl.). 
 
124  Shyikh Mahdi, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017: A Brief Review, FUTURE LAW INITIATIVE (Feb. 27, 
2017), https://futrlaw.org/brief-review-child-marriage-restraint-act-2017/ [https://perma.cc/4PAQ-U3EP]. 
While Rebecca Momin, Chair of Bangladesh’s Parliamentary Children and Women Affairs’ Committee, was 
quick to respond that the provision had been misinterpreted and that the “special circumstances” would be 
monitored by the courts, a spokesperson for the Child Rights Advocacy Coalition in Bangladesh stated, 
however, that “[m]any opportunists may try their luck in between the shortcomings of this law.” Medhavi 
Arora & Ben Westcott, Human Rights Groups Condemn New Bangladesh Child Marriage Law, CNN 
WORLD (Mar. 3, 2017), https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/asia/bangladesh-child-marriage-law/index.html 
[https://perma.cc/5SL9-TGXT]. 
 
125  Bangladesh: Legalizing Child Marriage Threatens Girls’ Safety, HUMAN RTS. WATCH (Mar. 2, 2017), 
https://www.hrw.org/ news/2017/03/02/bangladesh-legalizing-child-marriage-threatens-girls-safety 
[https://perma.cc/95QA-8MST].  
 



 
124 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

ultimately, to fully eradicate domestic child marriage by the year 2041.126 To achieve 
these goals, Hasina promised to revise the CMRA as well as develop a national plan of 
action to end child marriage. Despite this promise, Bangladesh’s plan was not launched 
until August 2018.127 The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has also implemented 
a multimedia campaign on ending child marriage and is supporting community-based 
clubs that discuss child marriage and other harmful social practices with adolescents.128 

 
This “special circumstances” provision has been widely criticized by domestic and 

international rights organizations,129 as well as by the European Parliament. In a June 
2017 resolution focusing on Bangladesh, the Parliament called for an amendment to the 
CMRA, stating “that the recently adopted Act is a step backwards for Bangladesh in its 
efforts to eliminate child marriage . . . [and] that this relaxation of the law undermines the 
Bangladesh government’s own targets for the reduction of child marriage.”130  

 
In addition to weakening the law, the Bangladesh government is also failing to 

enforce the law where it should prevent child marriages. Worse yet, government officials 
are often complicit in permitting child marriages to go ahead. In addition to a lack of 
enforcement, HRW also found that government officials were actively facilitating child 
marriages by accepting bribes to produce false birth certificates.131 In 2004, Bangladesh 
passed the Birth and Death Registration Act 2004,132 which required a bride and groom to 
have birth certificates, allowing enforcement officials to verify a person’s age and 

 
126  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 5. 
 
127  Md Nahlan, National Plan of Action Launched to End Child Marriage in Bangladesh, DHAKA TRIBUNE 
(Aug. 2, 2018), https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2018/08/02/national-plan-of-action-launched-to-
end-child-marriage-in-bangladesh [https://perma.cc/445P-WCR5].  
 
128  Johura Akter Pritu, Report: Number of Child Marriages Declines, DHAKA TRIBUNE (Oct. 19, 2018), 
https://www. dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2018/10/19/report-number-of-child-marriages-declines 
[https://perma.cc/CJ3C-3XJ6].  
 
129  Arora & Westcott, Human Rights Groups Condemn New Bangladesh Child Marriage Law, supra note 
124; see also Bangladesh Child Marriage Law Could Violate Girls’ Rights, PLAN INT’L (Feb. 7, 2017), 
https://plan-international.org/news/2017-02-06-bangladesh-child-marriage-law-could-violate-girls-rights 
[https://perma.cc/954G-2TMM]. 
 
130  Resolution on Bangladesh, Including Child Marriages, EUR. PARL. DOC. B8-0254 (2017). 
 
131  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 9. 
 
132  The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 2004: Unofficial Translation, BANGL. GAZETTE (Dec. 7, 2004), 
https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/511b54192.pdf [https://perma.cc/N7K7-TGCX]. 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         125 

determine if they meet the legal minimum ages of marriage. By providing a means for 
families to circumvent the legal age for marriage set out in the CMRA, these government 
officials subvert the legitimate efforts of other officials to discourage child marriage. As a 
Bangladeshi community leader told HRW, “The best way to end child marriage is if 
people in the administration—the chair, the member, the police, the officer in charge, and 
the deputy member sit together and decide to end child marriage . . . If they do this, I am 
100% certain they can end child marriage forever.”133 

 
 HRW also spoke with families who easily bypassed the legal system in other ways. 

For instance, after a complaint was filed that a twelve-year-old was to be wed to a 
twenty-five or twenty-six-year-old man, the parties simply went to the court of a 
neighboring town and signed an affidavit of marriage there. For another family, simply 
paying a lawyer’s fee of 600 taka (approximately seven USD)134 negated the requirement 
to show a birth certificate and allowed a girl to be married at age fourteen. HRW was also 
unable to locate a single instance in which an official or family member involved in 
facilitating a child marriage had faced sanctions.135 

 
2. Climate Change Policies  

 
Bangladesh’s climate change policies, while incorporating gendered considerations, 

do not address a potential link between climate change and child marriage. Bangladesh’s 
Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (“BCCSAP”) was originally released in 2008. 
After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office in January 2009, however, the 
government updated and revised the document.136 While the revised document does not 
address the impacts of climate change on child marriage specifically, it discusses the 
obligation of the government to focus its adaptation efforts on marginalized populations. 
Regarding food security, social protection, and health, the BCCSAP aims “to ensure that 
the poorest and most vulnerable in society, including women and children, are protected 

 
 
133  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 95. 
 
134  This conversion was calculated using the exchange rate at the time of writing (1 Bangladeshi 
Taka equals  0.012 US Dollar). 
 
135  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, MARRY BEFORE YOUR HOUSE IS SWEPT AWAY, supra note 1, at 119. 
 
136  MINISTRY OF ENV’T & FORESTS, GOV’T OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGL., BANGLADESH CLIMATE 
CHANGE STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN 2009 (2009), https://www.iucn.org/downloads/bangladesh_ 
climate_change_strategy_and_action_plan_2009.pdf [https://perma.cc/6SE8-Z939]. 
 



 
126 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

from climate change and that all programmes focus on the needs of this group for food 
security, safe housing, employment and access to basic services, including health.”137 The 
government also commits to “[i]ncrease the resilience of vulnerable groups, including 
women and children, through development of community-level adaptation, livelihood 
diversification, better access to basic services and social protection (e.g., safety nets, 
insurance) and scaling up).”138 It also states that “[t]he needs of the poor and vulnerable, 
including women and children, will be mainstreamed in all activities under the Action 
Plan”139 and includes the “[i]ntegration of gender consideration in all climate change 
management” as an objective in its discussion on capacity building and institutional 
strengthening.140 

 
In 2013, Bangladesh published a Climate Change and Gender Action Plan 

(“ccGAP”). The ccGAP’s overall objective is “[t]o mainstream gender concerns into 
climate change-related policies, strategies and interventions”.141 Under the food security, 
social protection, and health pillar, the ccGAP fleshes out which concerns are to be 
emphasized, focusing predominantly on the agricultural sector.142 The 122-page 
document mentions child marriage twice: It lists “the negative impact of early marriages” 
as a barrier to education faced by girls and it cites the CMRA and Dowry Prohibition Act 
as examples of legislative reform responding to issues raised by the Committee on the 
Elimination of Discrimination against Women.143 The plan, however, does not comment 
on the existence of any link between the impacts of climate change and child marriage or 
include any discussion of how to reduce child marriage or mitigate risk that climate 
change impacts could drive child marriage.  
 

 
137  Id. at xvii.  
 
138  Id. at 27. 
 
139  Id. at 27.   
 
140  Id. at 74. 
 
141  MINISTRY OF ENV’T & FORESTS, GOV’T OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGL., BANGLADESH CLIMATE 
CHANGE AND GENDER ACTION PLAN (2013), https://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn__bangladesh_climate_ 
change___gender_action_plan__1.pdf [https://perma.cc/CH8X-UK3X].  
 
142  Id. at x. 
 
143  Id. at 18. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         127 

Bangladesh’s Seventh Five Year Plan (for the years 2016–2020) includes 
environment and climate change as one of its thirteen sectors of focus.144 While this plan 
weaves child marriage prevention and response measures throughout it,145 it does not 
discuss child marriage within its climate change sections.  
 

B. Mozambique 
 

Mozambique is at high risk from droughts, floods, and coastal storms.146 This 
treacherous trio causes a particular threat to the sixty percent of Mozambicans living in 
coastal communities dispersed along the country’s extensive coastline.147 Like 
Bangladesh, Mozambique is also highly susceptible to disasters, placing third in the 
World Risk Index’s assessment of susceptible countries in 2016.148 Bilateral development 
agency Irish Aid states that “[p]overty, weak institutional development and frequent 
extreme weather events make Mozambique especially vulnerable.”149 

 

 
144  GEN. ECON. DIV. PLANNING COMM’N, GOV’T OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF BANGL., SEVENTH FIVE YEAR 
PLAN FY2016–FY2020: ACCELERATING GROWTH, EMPOWERING CITIZENS 400–54 (2015), https://www. 
plancomm.gov.bd/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/7FYP_after-NEC_11_11_2015.pdf [https://perma.cc/FDQ8-
S359]. 
 
145  For instance, while discussing the role of government sectors—other than the health ministry—to 
improve nutrition, the plan noted that the Ministries of Women and Children Affairs, Health and Family 
Welfare, Primary and Mass Education, and Information could all draw attention to how child marriage, as 
well as early pregnancy and childbearing, negatively impact women’s nutrition. See id. at 573.   
 
146  MOZAMBIQUE ACAD. OF SCI., NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION STRATEGY 
(2015), https://www.cgcmc.gov.mz/en/policy-and-strategies/148-national-adaptation-and-mitigation-of-
climate-change-strategy [https://perma.cc/L2BD-NXEZ].  
 
147  ROGER FEW ET AL., OXFORD POLICY MGMT., STRATEGIC RESEARCH INTO NATIONAL AND LOCAL 
CAPACITY BUILDING FOR DRM: MOZAMBIQUE FIELDWORK REPORT 12 (2015), https://www.ifrc.org/ 
Global/Documents/Secretariat/Research/version-2/Mozambique%20Fieldwork%20Report.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/7ZWH-ESJG] [hereinafter ROGER FEW ET AL., STRATEGIC RESEARCH]. 
 
148  PETER MUCKE ET AL., BÜNDNIS ENTWICKLUNG HILFT & UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENT 
AND HUMAN SECURITY WORLD RISK REPORT 2016 47 (2016) https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/ 
UNU:5763/WorldRiskReport2016_small_meta.pdf [https://perma.cc/8DKW-5U58]. 
 
149  IRISH AID RESILIENCE & ECONOMIC INCLUSION TEAM, MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE ACTION REPORT FOR 2016 
7 (2017), https://www.irishaid.ie/media/irishaid/allwebsitemedia/30whatwedo/climatechange/Mozambique-
Country-Climate-Action-Report-for-2016.pdf [https://perma.cc/X6GA-PSCG]. 
 



 
128 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

In recent years, Mozambique has faced an increasing number of extreme weather 
events, some of which are related to climate change.150 For instance, between 2000 to 
2012, Mozambique was struck by eleven cyclones, more than double the number it 
experienced between 1984 and 1997.151 Since the 1960s, annual levels of rainfall in 
Mozambique have decreased by 3.1% each decade, while the amount of extreme rainfall 
days has increased by 2.6% per decade.152 The 2018 Index for Risk Management found 
that Mozambique had the sixth highest frequency of droughts in the world, and 
correspondingly, the seventeenth and thirty-fifth highest amount of people affected by 
droughts (absolutely and relatively, respectively).153 

 
Extremely high levels of poverty have exacerbated the impacts of these climate 

hazards. The United Nations Development Programme’s 2017 Human Development 
Index, a ranking system based on longevity, education, and income, placed Mozambique 
180 out of 189 countries, affirming its position as one of the poorest nations in the 
world.154 Indeed, seventy percent of the country’s population lives below the poverty line, 
forty-four percent of which live in severe poverty.155 The United Nations Development 
Assistance Framework noted that more than half of Mozambique’s households are food 
insecure.156 While just under three-quarters of children attend primary school, the 
attendance rates for secondary school plummet, with only fifteen percent of males and 
seventeen percent of females attending lower secondary school, and three percent of both 

 
150  See e.g., Christopher B. Field et al., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Technical Summary, 
in CLIMATE CHANGE 2014 IMPACTS, ADAPTATION, AND VULNERABILITY, PART A: GLOBAL AND SECTORAL 
ASPECTS 42 (Christopher B. Field et al. eds., 2014), https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ 
WGIIAR5-TS_FINAL.pdf [https://perma.cc/WC6T-3ZPS].  
 
151  ROGER FEW ET AL., STRATEGIC RESEARCH, supra note 147.  
 
152  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, https://www.bridesofthesun.com/mozambique/ 
[https://perma.cc/8D4M-3EEM]. 
 
153  INFORM INDEX FOR RISK MGMT.: COUNTRIES—MOZAMBIQUE, http://www.inform-
index.org/Countries/Country-profiles [https://perma.cc/B9YZ-AAQX]. 
 
154  HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX, supra note 66. 
 
155  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
156  IRISH AID RESILIENCE & ECONOMIC INCLUSION TEAM, MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE ACTION REPORT FOR 2016, 
supra note 149, at 8. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         129 

males and females attending upper secondary school.157 
 

Over the last few years, a series of devastating weather events ensued. In January 
2015, flooding induced by extremely heavy rains led the Council of Ministers of 
Mozambique to declare an institutional red alert for central and northern Mozambique.158 
Heavy rains flooded both the northern and central regions, killing 163 people, internally 
displacing nearly 53,000 people, and altogether affecting more than 370,000 people.159 

Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Management attributed the aggravation of 
flooding to climate change.160 This flood was followed by “the worst drought in thirty-
five years,” which was caused by El Niño conditions. Over two million people were 
experiencing food insecurity and nutrition deficiency in Mozambique, and more than 
thirty-nine million people were affected in total across the African continent.161 
 

The pernicious influences of these two events led Germanwatch to list Mozambique 
as the country most affected by climate change on its 2015 Global Climate Risk Index.162 
Unfortunately, a third event—a tropical cyclone named Dineo—occurred in February 
2017.  

 
“Strong winds exceeding 160km/h and torrential rains killed seven people, injured 

fifty-five, displaced more than 100,000 and affected overall more than 600,000 
Mozambicans. According to the National Institute of Disaster Management, 20,000 mud-
made huts were partially or completely destroyed, their fragile leaf roofs being blown 

 
157  UNICEF Statistical Tables, supra note 8, at 171. 
 
158  UNITED NATIONS HUMANITARIAN COUNTRY TEAM, MOZAMBIQUE FLOODS 2015: RESPONSE AND 
RECOVERY PROPOSAL 4 (2015), https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Response%20and% 
20Recovery%20Proposal%20to%20Floods%20in%20Mozambique%202015_Final.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/FG56-PH8K]. 
 
159  ROGER FEW ET AL., STRATEGIC RESEARCH, supra note 147. 
 
160  Tom Bowker, Climate Change Blamed as New Flood Plains Plague Mozambique, BLOOMBERG (Apr. 
16, 2015), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/climate-change-blamed-as-shifting-flood-
plains-plague-mozambique [https://perma.cc/B2NY-9UBM]. 
 
161  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
162  SONIA KREFT, DAVID ECKSTEIN & INGA MELCHIOR, GERMANWATCH, GLOBAL CLIMATE RISK INDEX 2017: 
WHO SUFFERS MOST FROM EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS? WEATHER-RELATED LOSS EVENTS IN 2015 AND 1996 
TO 2015 4 (Joanne Chapman-Rose & Daniela Baum eds., 2016), https://germanwatch.org/sites/ 
germanwatch.org/files/publication/16411.pdf [https://perma.cc/D42Y-NBBS]. 
 



 
130 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

away, more than 1,600 classrooms were affected, seventy health facilities were affected, 
137,000 fruit trees were lost and 29,000 hectares of precious agricultural lands were left 
empty, damaging the crops that were expected to be harvested in April 2017.”163 

Additionally, heavy rains flooded the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, and Niassa 
in February 2018, affecting approximately 80,000 people.164 

 
Mozambique has the ninth highest prevalence of child marriage in the world, with 

forty-eight percent of girls wed by age eighteen and fourteen percent married by age 
fifteen.165 Although the prevalence of child marriage has declined, as in many high 
prevalence countries, the rapidly increasing population makes it difficult for this to 
translate into an actual reduction in the total number of girls marrying.166 In Mozambique, 
nearly half (forty-five percent) of the population is younger than fifteen.167 
 

According to the International Center for Research on Women, location was “the 
most important factor associated with child marriage in Mozambique.”168 UNICEF noted 
that the marrying age for girls was younger in rural areas than in urban areas.169 Girls Not 
Brides found that in the north, “traditional practices aimed at children from ten to thirteen 
years contribute to child marriage by emphasising [sic] the subordination of a girl to her 
husband and elders, and signifies a girl moving into adulthood and towards marriage,” 
while in the south, pregnancy was found to be a leading cause of child marriage.170 
Interestingly, between 1997 and 2011, both Nampula Province (a northeastern province) 

 
163  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
164  Arimando Domingos, Mozambique: Floods Displace Thousands in Mozambique, CAJNEWS AFRICA 
(Feb. 20, 2018), https://allafrica.com/stories/201802200635.html [https://perma.cc/93RU-ZS8Z]. 
 
165  UNICEF Statistical Tables, supra note 8, at 183. 
 
166  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
167  INDEXMUNDI: MOZAMBIQUE DEMOGRAPHICS PROFILE 2018, 
https://www.indexmundi.com/mozambique/demographics_ profile.html [https://perma.cc/Q8ZQ-E58Y]. 
 
168  JAIN & KURZ, NEW INSIGHTS, supra note 101. 
 
169  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
170  Press Release, Girls Not Brides, Mozambique Launches National Strategy to End Child Marriage (Apr. 
11, 2016), https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/press-release-mozambique-launches-national-strategy-to-end-child-
marriage/ [https://perma.cc/9BYB-MMSC].  



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         131 

and Maputo Province (the southernmost province) saw a ten percent increase in the 
number of pregnancies for girls under age fifteen.171 
 

Poverty remains a determining factor of child marriages in Mozambique. With each 
woman having an average of five children,172 many families struggle to have enough 
food. Arranging a marriage for a daughter is sometimes seen as “offering her a chance to 
be supported by a new husband unencumbered by a large family.”173 Extreme weather 
events have also been reported to contribute to a family’s decision to marry off their 
daughters early. CARE International found that the recent drought caused families to lose 
their homes, lands, and livelihoods, and as a result, many parents arranged marriages for 
their daughters to provide a source of income, or simply “to reduce the number of mouths 
to feed.”174  
 

In some cases, changing rainfall patterns may have increased child marriage rates. A 
Nampula fisherman and father of eleven shared with Brides of the Sun how the changing 
rain patterns had impacted his livelihood. The lack of rain had made a nearby estuary dry 
up, forcing him to travel greater distances to try and catch fish. While he also grew 
cassava, corn, and other vegetables on his farm, the lack of rain had stymied their 
production too. One of his daughters was married to a fellow student at age thirteen. 
While he had not wanted her to get married so young, with so many other mouths to feed, 
he felt he was left with little choice: “If I was able to feed my children, I wouldn’t have 
pushed her to get married so young,” he explained.175 

 
1. Child Marriage Legislation 

 
Similar to Bangladesh, Mozambique’s law governing child marriage, the Family Law 

Statute, contains an exception permitting children to marry.176 In Mozambique, this 
 

 
171  Id. 
 
172  INDEXMUNDI: MOZAMBIQUE DEMOGRAPHICS PROFILE 2018, supra note 167. 
 
173  BRIDES OF THE SUN: MOZAMBIQUE, supra note 152. 
 
174  Sundaram, How Climate Change Drives Child Marriage, supra note 74. 
 
175  BRIDES OF THE SUN: CARLINA, https://www.bridesofthesun.com/carlina/ [https://perma.cc/227W-T7D5]. 
 
176  Boletim Da República, I Série—Numero 34, REPUBLICA DE MOCAMBIQUE (Aug. 25, 2004), 
http://jafbase.fr/docAfrique/Mozambique/Lei%2010.2004%20-%20Lei%20da%20Familia.pdf 
[perma.cc/6MUL-HWDJ]. 



 
132 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

exception permits children age sixteen or seventeen to marry with parental consent.177 

There is no requirement to obtain consent from those entering the marriage, nor is 
judicial review required for children to wed.178 In a 2016 policy brief, Plan International 
advocated that Mozambique’s Family Law Statute be amended to remove this exception; 
however, they noted that an alternative (and less preferred) approach would be to amend 
the Family Law Statute to require judicial approval of any marriage of children.179 
 

Mozambique has taken steps to reduce child marriage, including the adoption of a 
National Strategy on Prevention and Fight against Child Marriage180 in December 2015 
and the launch of a National Strategy for the Prevention and Combating of Early 
Marriage (2015–2019) in April 2016.181 Girls Not Brides, an international network of 
NGOs working to end child marriage, through their partners in Mozambique assisted in 
the creation of this strategy, which Girls Not Brides called “an ambitious across-the-
board plan to prevent and combat child marriage by 2019.”182 Girls Not Brides cautioned, 
however, that the real test would come in implementation, stating: “No real change 
comes from a piece of paper alone and the coming months will determine the fate of the 
national strategy, be it gathering dust on a shelf somewhere, or transforming girls’ lives 
across the country.”183 

 
 
177  Id. 
 
178  PLAN INT’L, POLICY BRIEF: ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE IN MOZAMBIQUE: GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN 
LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS 4 (2016) https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/11/PLAN_18_policy_brief_mozambique_ final.pdf [perma.cc/9Q76-SXXD] 
[hereinafter PLAN INT’L, ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE]. 
 
179  Id. at 6. 
 
180  REPUBLICA DE MOCAMBIQUE, ESTRATEGIA NACIONAL DE PREVENÇÃO E COMBATE DOS CASAMENTOS 
PREMATUROS EM MOÇAMBIQUE (2016-2019), APROVADA NA 42ª SESSÃO ORDINÁRIA DO CONSELHO DE 
MINISTROS A 01 DEZ 2015 (2015), http://www.unicef.org.mz/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ESTRATEGIA-
NACIONAL-DE-PREVENCAO-E-COMBATE-DOS-CASAMENTOS-PREMATUROS-EM-
MOCAMBIQUE.pdf [perma.cc/B5KD-M63T].  
 
181  Estratégia Nacional De Prevenção E Combate Aos Casamentos Prematuros (2016-2019), UNICEF 
(Apr. 11, 2016), http://www.unicef.org.mz/estrategia-nacional-de-prevencao-e-combate-aos-casamentos-
prematuros-2016-2019/ [perma.cc/8F65-7QGT].  
 
182  Albino Francisco & Persilla Muianga, Mozambique’s National Strategy on Child Marriage: A Ray of 
Hope for Girls, GIRLS NOT BRIDES (Apr. 11, 2016), https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/mozambiques-national-
strategy-on-child-marriage-a-ray-of-hope-for-girls/ [perma.cc/B2K5-DZMV]. 
 
183  Id.  



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         133 

 
Despite being passed in 2015 and 2016, there is little information available on the 

plans’ implementation progress; as such, it remains to be seen how effective these plans 
have been or will be. Other developments, however, include the adoption of statutes on 
children’s rights,184 family law, and domestic violence.185 
 

2. Climate Change Policies 
 

Mozambique’s National Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy 
(“NCCAMS”), approved in November 2012, is a planning document for the years 2013 
to 2025.186 The NCCAMS has three central themes: adaptation and climate risk 
management; mitigation and low carbon development; and cross-cutting issues.187 Similar 
to the BCCSAP, this strategy emphasizes the importance of reducing climate 
vulnerability. While this plan was created after the adoption of a Climate Change and 
Gender Action Plan,188 the NCCAMS only mentions the plan once in passing as another 
instrument that is working to reduce vulnerability to climate change.  

 
In 2007, following a push by the Global Gender and Climate Alliance for a gender 

perspective to be included in all climate change policies, Mozambique’s National Plan 
for the Advancement of Women 2007–2009 determined that “women, environment and 
agriculture” was an area of critical intervention.189 Three years later, Mozambique 

 
 
184  Boletim Da República, I Série—Numero 28, REPUBLICA DE MOCAMBIQUE (July 9, 2008), 
http://www.africanchildforum.org/ 
clr/Legislation%20Per%20Country/Mozambique/mozambique_children_2008_pr.pdf, at 1 [perma.cc/UT7Q-
GEG3]. 
 
185  PLAN INT’L, ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE, supra note 178, at 4, 6. 
 
186  MOZAMBIQUE ACAD. OF SCI., NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION STRATEGY, 
supra note 146. This strategy was to be implemented through Climate Change Action Plans released for 2013 
to 2014, 2015 to 2019, and 2020 to 2025. 
 
187  GOV’T OF MOZAMBIQUE, NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION STRATEGY 9–10 
(2012), https://www.ctc-n.org/sites/www.ctc-n.org/files/resources/mozambique_national_climate_ 
change_strategy.pdf [perma.cc/S6WA-E68H]. 
 
188  MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER ACTION PLAN, supra note 84. 
 
189  LEISA PERCH & ROSALY BYRD, RIO+ WORLD CTR. FOR SUSTAINABLE DEV., A CASE STUDY ON THE 
MOZAMBIQUE STRATEGY FOR GENDER, ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE 2 (United Nations Dev. 
Programme, 2014). 



 
134 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

released its Strategy for Gender, Environment, and Climate Change,190 followed shortly 
thereafter by the Climate Change and Gender Action Plan,191 “making Mozambique’s the 
first government in the world to create such a policy and program for implementation.”192 

In 2014, Mozambique released an updated version of this plan.193 A study about the 
action plan found that “[a]cknowledging that both gender and environment are 
transversal issues, the Strategy acts to build bridges and identify priorities and 
interventions that can take advantage of existing synergies to create a broader multi-
sectoral response for complex challenges like climate change.”194 The action plan only 
mentions child marriage twice: firstly, to state how it exacerbates HIV/AIDS rates in 
certain parts of Mozambique,195 and secondly, to note that the Family Law Statute bans 
marriage under the age of eighteen.196 

 
C. Summary 

 
As a result of environmental vulnerability and high levels of poverty, research 

suggests that child marriages may have been used in Bangladesh and Mozambique as an 
adaptation measure in response to the impacts of both natural and slow-onset disasters. 
However, the existing evidence for this relationship is not reflected in the countries’ 
climate change and child marriage laws and policies, which by and large do not 
acknowledge any potential link between climate change and child marriage. 
 

In Bangladesh, a lack of enforcement of the minimum age of marriage, coupled with 
a newly added exception that undermines the minimum age of marriage for girls, has 
failed to prevent and eradicate child marriage. While its climate change plans consider 

 
 
190  MINISTÉRIO PARA A COORDENAÇÃO DA ACÇÃO AMBIENTAL, ESTRATÉGIA E PLANO DE ACÇÃO DE GÉNERO, 
AMBIENTE E MUDANÇAS CLIMÁTICAS (2010), http://cebem.org/cmsfiles/publicaciones/ 
Estrategia_genero_ambiente.pdf [perma.cc/HT23-A6B4]. 
 
191  MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER ACTION PLAN, supra note 84. The authors at the time of 
writing were unable to locate a copy of this plan. 
 
192  Id. 
 
193  Id. 
 
194  PERCH & BYRD, A CASE STUDY ON THE MOZAMBIQUE STRATEGY FOR GENDER, ENVIRONMENT AND 
CLIMATE CHANGE, supra note 189, at 2. 
 
195  MOZAMBIQUE CLIMATE CHANGE GENDER ACTION PLAN, supra note 84, at 31. 
 
196  Id. at 42. 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         135 

gendered impacts, they do not address how child marriage rates may be affected by the 
impacts of climate change. Similar to Bangladesh, Mozambique’s child marriage 
legislation contains an exception permitting some children to marry. The Government of 
Mozambique has created several plans to respond to both climate change and child 
marriage, but those plans do not make a link between the two issues in either sector.  
 

III. Domestic Obligations Under International Law 
 

A. International Human Rights Law 
 

Under international human rights law, all governments have obligations to protect the 
rights of girls and women. Several international human rights instruments speak out, 
either directly or indirectly, against child marriage.197 Monitoring committees of some 
treaties are also beginning to consider the impacts of climate change within their 
mandates.  
 

1. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination 
Against Women (“CEDAW”) 

 
Article 16(1) provides equal rights to men and women to enter into marriage and 

provides an equal right to “choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free 
and full consent.” Article 16(2) states that “[t]he betrothal and the marriage of a child 
shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to 
specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an 
official registry compulsory.”198 
 

In 1994, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 
released General Comment No. 21 on “Equality in marriage and family relations,” which 
affirmed the equal right of men and women to enter into marriage when both parties have 

 
197  See, e.g., International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights art. 23(2)–(3), Mar. 23 1976, 999 
U.N.T.S. 171; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights art. 10(1), Jan. 3, 1976, 993 
U.N.T.S. 3; Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage 
art. 1–3. 16, Dec. 9, 1964, 521 U.N.T.S. 231; Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the 
Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery art. 1(c)(i), 2, Apr. 30, 1957, 226 U.N.T.S. 3; 
G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, art. 16 (1)–(2), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948). 
 
198  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Sept. 3, 1981, 1249 
U.N.T.S. 13.  
 



 
136 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

freely and fully consented.199 In 2014, this Committee and the Committee on the Rights 
of the Child released a joint general recommendation on harmful practices, including 
child marriage.200 In 2018, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against 
Women released a General Recommendation to address “[g]ender-related dimensions of 
disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change.”201 The Center for International 
Environmental Law (“CIEL”) noted that this is “the first document adopted by a human 
rights treaty body that directly and authoritatively interprets how States must integrate 
international human rights obligations into climate action.”202 This recommendation notes 
that “[s]ituations of crisis exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities” and urges States to 
take action to address “existing and new risk factors for gender-based violence against 
women—including domestic violence, sexual violence, economic violence, human 
trafficking and forced marriage—within the context of disaster risk reduction and climate 
change.”203 

 
2. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) 

 
Article 1 of the CRC defines a child as “every human being below the age of 

eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.”204 
 

199  Comm. on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 21: Equality in 
Marriage and Family Relations, U.N. Doc. A/49/38 (1994). 
 
200  Comm. on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women & Comm. on the Rights of the Child, 
Joint General Recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against 
Women/General Comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Harmful Practices, U.N. 
Doc CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18 (2014). 
 
201  General Recommendation No. 37, supra note 50. 
 
202  Oliva Bonner, Tackling Gender Disparity at the Intersection of Human Rights and Climate Change, 
CTR. FOR INT’L ENVT’L L. (Mar. 13, 2018), http://www.ciel.org/gender-disparity-intersection-human-rights-
climate-change/ [https://perma.cc/9VK8-KKKX]; see also CTR. FOR INT’L ENVTL. LAW & GLOB. INITIATIVE 
FOR ECON., SOC. & CULTURAL RIGHTS, STATES’ HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE 
CHANGE (2018), http://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HRTBs-synthesis-report.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/BUX7-38YT] [hereinafter CIEL & GI-ESCR, STATES’ HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS].  
 
203  General Recommendation No. 37, supra note 50, at ¶ 2, ¶ 57(a). 
 
204  Convention on the Rights of the Child art. 1, Sept. 2, 1990, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3. As Bangladesh’s laws and 
policies do not have a uniform definition of the child, there are conflicting legal minimum ages of children 
for marriage under different national laws. This system is further confused by a national legal framework that 
provides different legal provisions for people from different religious faiths. See Comm. on the Rights of 
the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention, U.N. 
Doc. CRC/C/BGD/CO/4 (2009); TAHRAT NAUSHABA SHAHID, THE FOUND. FOR L., JUSTICE, & SOC’Y, ISLAM 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         137 

In a 2004 General Comment, the Committee on the Rights of the Child urged state parties 
to “review and, where necessary, reform their legislation and practice to increase the 
minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to eighteen years, for both 
girls and boys.”205 Additionally, Article 24(3) compels state parties to “take all effective 
and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the 
health of children.”206 

The Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly used its Concluding 
Comments to raise concerns about child marriage, including issues such as the prevalence 
of child marriage in Nepal and Lebanon,207 gaps between legislation and implementation 
in Nepal,208 the impact of child marriage on the health of girls in India, Kuwait, and 
Bangladesh,209 the need to raise the age of consent in Costa Rica,210 the compatibility of 

 
AND WOMEN IN THE CONSTITUTION OF BANGLADESH: THE IMPACT ON FAMILY LAWS FOR MUSLIM WOMEN 2 
(2013), https://www.fljs.org/sites/www.fljs.org/files/publications/Tahrat.pdf [https://perma.cc/L2UQ-KJE2]; 
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, “WILL I GET MY DUES . . . BEFORE I DIE? HARM TO WOMEN FROM BANGLADESH’S 
DISCRIMINATORY LAWS ON MARRIAGE, SEPARATION, AND DIVORCE” (2012), https://www.hrw.org/sites/ 
default/files/reports/bangladesh0912ForUpload.pdf [https://perma.cc/5WA7-UK85]. 
 
205  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 4 Adolescent Health and Development in the 
Context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ¶ 16, U.N. Doc. CRC/GC/2003/4 (2004). 
 
206  Convention on the Rights of the Child art. 24(3), Sept. 2, 1990, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3. 
 
207  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Nepal, U.N. 
Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.261 (2005); Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by 
States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights 
of the Child: Lebanon, ¶ 16, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/Add.54 (1996). 
 
208  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Nepal, U.N. 
Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.57 (1996). 
 
209  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Bangladesh,  ¶¶  
15, 28, 63, 67, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/BGD/CO/4 (2009); Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of 
Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the 
Committee on the Rights of the Child: India, ¶ 32, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.115 (2000); Comm. on the 
Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 44 of the 
Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Kuwait, ¶ 28, U.N. Doc. 
CRC/C/15/Add.96 (1998). 
 
210  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Costa Rica, ¶¶ 
27–28, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/CRI/CO/4 (2011).   



 
138 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

the CRC and customary laws in Nigeria,211 and the differing age of marriage for males 
and females in Nepal and Guatemala.212 The Committee also expressed its concern to 
Nepal about how its 2015 earthquake may impact child marriage. The Committee 
recommended that Nepal “[u]ndertake an assessment of the impact of the 2015 
earthquakes on girls’ vulnerability to child marriage and apply those findings to guide the 
implementation of measures to address the increased risk of child marriages.”213 

 
B. International Climate Change Law 

  
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”),214 

adopted in 1992, defines its ultimate objective in Article 2 as the “stabilization of 
greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”215 

 
While the Convention itself does not mention human rights, two of the UNFCCC’s 

subsequent agreements have incorporated human rights into the climate agenda. First, in 
2010, the Cancun Agreements emphasized “that Parties should, in all climate change 
related actions, fully respect human rights.”216 Second, the Paris Agreement on Climate 
Change was adopted in 2015. Its Preamble acknowledges that because 

 
 
211  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Nigeria, ¶ 8, 
U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.61 (1996). 
 
212  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 
44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Nepal, ¶ 12 
U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.57 (1996); Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Consideration of Reports Submitted 
by States Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the 
Rights of the Child: Guatemala, ¶ 15, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/Add.58 (1996). 
 
213  Comm. on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations on the Third to Fifth Periodic Reports of 
Nepal, ¶¶ 39, 40(d), U.N. Doc. CRC/C/NPL/CO/3-5 (2016). 
 
214  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, S. Treaty Doc No. 102-38, May 9, 1992, 
1771 U.N.T.S. 107. 
 
215  Id. at art. 2. 
 
216  Framework Convention on Climate Change, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its Sixteenth 
Session, held in Cancun from 29 November to 10 December 2010 ¶ 8, U.N. Doc. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add1 
(2011). According to Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnée, and Lavanya Rajamani, this was “the first explicit 
reference to human rights in the UN climate regime.” DANIEL BODANSKY, JUTTA BRUNNEE & LAVANYA 
RAJAMANI, INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE LAW 310 (2017). 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         139 

 
[C]limate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, 
when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and 
consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, 
the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, 
persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right 
to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and 
intergenerational equity.217 

 
This is the first international environmental treaty to explicitly recognize the 

importance of protecting human rights, including women’s rights and children’s rights, in 
the context of the international response to climate change.218 
 

Under the UNFCCC, state parties identified as least developed countries (“LDCs”) 
can submit National Adaptation Programmes of Action (“NAPAs”), which are 
documents that allow LDCs to report their urgent and immediate needs relating to climate 
adaptation.219 The UNFCCC’s financial mechanism provides limited funding, which 
countries can apply for to assist in the implementation of such adaptation measures.220  
 

Only four percent of NAPAs address a link between human rights and climate 
change,221 and very few consider the impacts on women or children in their priority 

 
 
217  U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, 21, U.N. Doc. 
FCCC/CP/2015/L9/Rev 1 (2015) [hereinafter Adoption of the Paris Agreement]. 
 
218  As Bodansky, Brunnée, and Rajamani note, however, by referring to “respective obligations,” it does 
not infer any new human rights obligations for states. BODANSKY, BRUNNEE & RAJAMANI, INTERNATIONAL 
CLIMATE CHANGE LAW, supra note 216, at 312. 
 
219  U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT LDCS, THE LEG AND NAPAS, 
https://unfccc.int/adaptation/ knowledge_resources/ldc_portal/items/4743.php [https://perma.cc/B8AF-
QKFA].While the authors have chosen to follow the practice of the United Nations in using this classification 
of countries, the authors acknowledge that this term may be considered problematic, particularly in imposing 
a Western framework of development to assess a country. 
 
220  For more information on the conditions to receive funding, see GLOBAL ENV’T FACILITY, ACCESSING 
RESOURCES UNDER THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES FUND (2011), 
https://www.thegef.org/sites/default/files/publications/23469_LDCF_1.pdf [https://perma.cc/7GSU-QPBC]. 
 
221  SÉBASTIEN DUYCK, MARY ROBINSON FOUND., INCORPORATING HUMAN RIGHTS INTO CLIMATE ACTION: 
VERSION 2 4 (2016), https://www.mrfcj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Incorporating-Human-Rights-into-
Climate-Action-Version-2-May-2016.pdf [https://perma.cc/7TAW-8KCD].  



 
140 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

adaptation projects.222 Uganda’s NAPA provides a positive example of how this 
connection can be made. It notes that “famine marriage” is used as a coping strategy, 
where “[i]n times of food crisis, some parents distressfully marry off their daughters to 
secure dowry for survival . . . This fuels early marriages, drop out of schools and 
exposure to sexually transmitted infections and related reproductive complications.”223 
 

There is also a recent but growing body of international guidance explicitly linking 
the risk of child marriage to the vulnerabilities created by crises, including crises that 
may be exacerbated by climate change. Since 2013, the UN General Assembly has issued 
three resolutions on Child, Early, and Forced Marriage. The first resolution, adopted in 
2013,224 called for a report and panel discussion on child, early, and forced marriage 
globally, indicating a shift to examine child marriage in the human rights arena.225 The 
second resolution, adopted in 2014, recognized that child marriage is a practice that 
violates human rights, that is linked to other practices that threaten other human rights, 
and that child marriage “is itself a barrier to development and helps to perpetuate the 
cycle of poverty and that the risk of child, early and forced marriage is also exacerbated 
in conflict and humanitarian crisis situations.”226 

 
 
222  DANKELMAN ET AL., GENDER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN SECURITY, supra note 50, at 19; EMILY 
POLACK, CHILDREN IN A CHANGING CLIMATE, CHILD RIGHTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: VOICES 
FROM KENYA AND CAMBODIA 14 (Anna Garvander et al. eds., 2010) https://www.preventionweb.net/ 
files/13119_CCCReportFinal1.pdf [https://perma.cc/73SV-TKFM]. For instance, Bangladesh’s NAPA 
recognizes that both women and children are among the most vulnerable populations and that, as such, “any 
attempt to adapt or to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change will need to have special emphasis on 
protecting and helping these most vulnerable groups.” However, neither women nor children are identified as 
stakeholders or actors in the listed possible adaptation measures. Instead, there is a single measure proposed 
to “[i]ncrease the resilience of vulnerable groups, including women and children.” GOV’T OF THE PEOPLE’S 
REPUBLIC OF BANGL. MINISTRY OF ENV’T & FORESTS, NATIONAL ADAPTATION PROGRAMME OF ACTION 
(NAPA) UPDATED VERSION 34, 40 (Nilufa Islam et al. eds., 2009), 
https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/napa/ban02.pdf [https://perma.cc/NG4Q-XGG8]. Mozambique’s NAPA does 
not mention gendered impacts or children at all in its sixty-two-page document. MINISTRY FOR THE CO-
ORDINATION OF ENVTL. AFFAIRS, NATIONAL ADAPTATION PROGRAMME OF ACTION (NAPA) (2007), 
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/napa/ moz01.pdf [https://perma.cc/6E9P-6862]. 
 
223  THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA, CLIMATE CHANGE UGANDA NATIONAL ADAPTATION PROGRAMMES OF 
ACTION 45 (Florence Luziraa et al. eds., 2007), https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/napa/uga01.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/8WDK-NDM3]. 
 
224  G.A. Res. 68/148 (Dec. 18, 2013). 
 
225  HODGKINSON, UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING CHILD MARRIAGE, supra note 16, at 44. 
 
226  G.A. Res. 69/156 (Dec. 18, 2015). 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         141 

 
In 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a subsequent resolution that expanded 

this provision to recognize that child marriage “can increase during humanitarian 
emergencies, situations of forced displacement, armed conflict and natural disaster” as 
well as acknowledging “the importance of addressing the increased vulnerability of 
women and girls to sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation in those 
situations.”227 This resolution also recommended that States improve their collection of 
data on harmful practices, disaggregated by a number of key factors, including 
geographic location.228  
 

This shift demonstrates the General Assembly’s growing awareness that the 
environment in which a girl or woman lives may impact her likeliness to enter into a 
child marriage. While these documents provide hope that present and future efforts will 
better examine these interconnections, incorporating those intentions into domestic and 
international actions and policies may be harder to do.  

 
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030,229 adopted at the 

Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015, presents an example of 
a missed opportunity to address child marriage. This framework, which “aims to achieve 
the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health,”230 
contains four priority areas—the first of which is understanding disaster risk. While the 
framework notes that both women and children are disproportionately affected by 
disasters,231 and implores for a gender perspective to be included in all policies,232 the 
only specific gendered reference speaks to building women’s capacity to “secure 
alternate means of livelihood in post-disaster situations.”233 

 

 
 
227  G.A. Res. 71/175 (Dec. 19, 2016). 
 
228  Id. at ¶ 16. 
 
229  UNITED NATIONS, SENDAI FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION 2015-2030 (2015). 
 
230  Id. at ¶ 16. 
 
231  Id. at ¶ 4, ¶ 20. 
 
232  Id. at ¶ 19(d). 
 
233  Id. at ¶ 36(a)(i). 
 



 
142 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

Leading up to the creation of the implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement 
in December 2018, human rights and women’s rights activists advocated for the inclusion 
of strong human rights references in these guidelines.234 While the guidelines adopted at 
COP24 do not explicitly reference human rights, they do reinforce the need for states to 
integrate gender considerations in their climate policies, such as while planning their 
national climate change action plans (Nationally Determined Contributions) and 
communicating adaptation information and action (Adaptation Communications).235 

Independent of the Paris Agreement and the implementation guidelines adopted at 
COP24, however, all parties to the UNFCCC are bound by their respective human rights 
obligations when implementing the Paris Agreement and determining their domestic 
climate policies. 

 
CONCLUSION 

 
This Article has laid out the existing evidence that the impacts of climate change may 

increase the risk of child marriage. While the existing research is both recent and largely 
qualitative or anecdotal, it is consistent—and growing. Much more extensive research 
and monitoring, including quantitative studies, is needed to fill the gaps. 

 
While the exact impact of climate change on child marriage needs further study, 

existing international obligations require governments to: (1) ensure that their response to 
climate change includes specific attention and monitoring of the impact of climate change 
on women and girls, including any risk that climate change impacts will exacerbate or 
undermine efforts to end child marriage; and (2) ensure that efforts to end child marriage 
are crafted to respond to the ways in which the impacts of climate change may heighten 
the vulnerability of children to early marriage.  

 
As child marriage is influenced by multiple factors and climate change mitigation 

requires work across several sectors, there are numerous channels and opportunities for 

 
234  See Press Release, Ctr. For Int’l Envtl. Law, One Step Closer to Katowice: Slow Progress on Paris 
Agreement Implementation Guidelines at Bonn Climate Meeting (May 10, 2018), http://www.ciel.org/ 
news/one-step-closer-katowice-slow-progress-paris-agreement-implementation-guidelines-bonn-climate-
meeting/ [https://perma.cc/J2AJ-Y66T];WOMEN GENDER CONSTITUENCY, KEY DEMANDS (2018), 
http://womengenderclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/COP24-WGC-Demands_ 
Finallitedesign.pdf?blm_aid=41509 [https://perma.cc/QQ3N-8QJ5]. 
 
235  CTR. FOR INT’L ENVTL. LAW, REPORT FROM THE KATOWICE CLIMATE CONFERENCE: PROMOTING HUMAN 
RIGHTS IN CLIMATE ACTION AT COP-24 2–3 (2018), https://www.ciel.org/wp-
content/uploads/2018/12/HRCC_Roundletter_COP24_ December2018.pdf [https://perma.cc/G9S2-7546]. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         143 

action. After analyzing international efforts, UNFPA distilled five key ideas for working 
towards the eradication of child marriage: empowering girls through skill-building and 
knowledge; eliminating all associated costs with education; transforming social norms; 
financially incentivizing and enabling families to keep their daughters in school; and 
calling for strong legislation, as well as the enforcement of that legislation.236  
 

Efforts to eradicate child marriage should also assess and monitor climate change 
impacts. For instance, do national action plans focusing on eradicating child marriage 
acknowledge climate change? When prioritizing different parts of the country for anti-
child marriage initiatives, are decision-makers taking into consideration which areas of 
the country are most affected by climate change? Are such initiatives being adapted to 
reach populations displaced by natural disasters and impacted by climate change? Is the 
prevalence of child marriage in populations affected by climate change being monitored? 
These are a few of the many ways in which climate change concerns can begin to be 
integrated into anti-child marriage efforts. 
 

Just as child marriage efforts need to consider climate change concerns, anti-child 
marriage efforts—and the rights of women and girls more broadly—should also be 
incorporated into climate change mitigation and adaption planning. Under international 
human rights law, climate change policies should consider how to accommodate, reduce, 
and strive to eliminate the differing gendered impacts of climatic changes on women and 
girls. 

 
In an open letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to 

all states participating in the 2018 climate change negotiations, Michelle Bachelet warned 
that “human rights are under threat from a force which challenges the foundations of all 
life, as we know it, on this planet we share.” She argued that states have a human rights 
obligation to enable adaptation and to strengthen their mitigation commitments.237 

Without additional mitigation efforts, the current policies in place project global 
temperature increases in 2100 ranging from 3.1–3.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial 

 
236  See LOAIZA & WONG, MARRYING TOO YOUNG, supra note 14, at 51–53.  
 
237  Open Letter from Michelle Bachelet, U.N. High Comm’r for Human Rights 1 (Nov. 21, 2018), 
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/OpenLetterHC21Nov2018.pdf 
[https://perma.cc/J3SK-PCK3]. 
 



 
144 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW 38.1 
 

levels.238 This is greatly above the two degrees Celsius goal—with a further call to limit 
the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius—agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.239 
 

International human rights treaty bodies, such as the committees that implement 
CEDAW and CRC, have started to ask countries questions about climate change.240 This 
should happen more consistently and should be included in future general comments and 
recommendations. United Nations human rights experts, including Special Procedures, 
should also consider the intersection of climate change impacts and child marriage 
throughout their work. Governments should implement the commitments enshrined in the 
preamble of the Paris Agreement to respect children’s and women’s rights when taking 
climate action and should work to integrate the principles of the preamble into the 
forthcoming revision of their Nationally Determined Contributions due in 2020.241  
 

In a 2015 report on the impact of climate change and human rights in Kenya, HRW 
detailed how climate change adaptation policies could incorporate a rights-based 
approach, including a focus on equality and non-discrimination, the progressive 
realization of economic, social and cultural rights, ensuring free and meaningful 
participation, and accountability.242 There are several ways in which such a rights-based 
approach could be applied to climate change and child marriage. For example, 
governments should ensure that women and girls are adequately represented in 
community consultations as part of planning processes. All planning documents on 
climate change and natural disasters should consider how to mitigate harm and protect 

 
238  Ottmar Edenhofer et al., Technical Summary, in CLIMATE CHANGE 2014: MITIGATION OF CLIMATE 
CHANGE, CONTRIBUTION OF WORKING GROUP III TO THE FIFTH ASSESSMENT REPORT OF THE 
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE 26 (Ottmar Edenhofer et al. eds., 2014); see also CLIMATE 
ACTION TRACKER: TEMPERATURES, https://climateactiontracker.org/global/ temperatures/ 
[https://perma.cc/V5RE-DGCF]. 
 
239  Adoption of the Paris Agreement, supra note 217, at art. 2(1)(a). 
 
240  For example, both committees have expressed concerns about the disproportionate impacts on women 
and children in vulnerable situations impacted by climate change, advocated for their participation in climate-
related decision making, and call for women and children’s rights to be integrated into climate action. See 
CIEL & GI-ESCR, STATES’ HUMAN RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS, supra note 202, at 8–10. 
 
241  NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTIONS (NDCS), https://unfccc.int/process/the-paris-
agreement/nationally-determined-contributions/ndc-registry#eq-1 [https://perma.cc/X7J6-PNSC]. 
 
242  HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, “THERE IS NO TIME LEFT”: CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS, AND 
HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA 32 (2015), https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/10/15/there-no-
time-left/climate-change-environmental-threats-and-human-rights-turkana [https://perma.cc/3AUC-WYXZ]. 
 



 
38.1 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF GENDER AND LAW                         145 

the rights of women and girls, including specific measures relating to the prevention of 
child marriage as well as assisting already-married children. Prioritizing access to 
education for girls among adaptation actions can also help prevent child marriages. 

  
As Bangladesh, Mozambique, and other developing countries respond to harms that 

could result from climate-related impacts—including increased child marriage rates—
questions of responsibilities and resources arise.243 The framework of common but 
differentiated responsibilities recognizes that states have differing responsibilities based 
on both their contribution to global environmental degradation and their differing 
financial resources and capacities. 

 
Climate justice-related concerns have been a focal point of many climate change 

discussions over the last several years. Similarly, ending child marriage is also a priority 
of the international community, demonstrated by the UN General Assembly’s passing of 
three resolutions on child, early, and forced marriages since 2014244 and the inclusion of a 
target of ending child marriage in the Sustainable Development Goals.245 Although some 
of the countries most affected by climate change also have a high prevalence of child 
marriage, little research has examined the relationship between these two issues.  
 

Existing climate planning strategies, as well as measures taken to reduce and 
eliminate child marriage, should be examined: Can they better address any links? New 
climate change planning policies should explicitly consider gendered implications of their 
proposals, including child marriage. Organizations and governments striving to reduce 
and eliminate child marriage should further consider how the effects of climate change 
may be a contributing factor. Incorporating these concerns into both domestic level 
policies and international agreements will serve to increase awareness and spark further 
dialogue on the appropriate measures needed to respond to this gendered implication of 
climate change. 

 
243  NOTRE DAME GLOBAL ADAPTATION INITIATIVE: BANGLADESH, https://gain-
new.crc.nd.edu/country/bangladesh [https://perma.cc/998V-9W9B]. For instance, Bangladesh played a very 
minimal role in the historical emissions that led to the immense effects their country is experiencing today. 
Additionally, the ND-GAIN ranks Bangladesh as the thirty-third most vulnerable country and the twenty-fifth 
least ready country. In this light, it is neither fair nor possible to expect them to shoulder the burden of 
adapting to climate change today and in the future. 
 
244  G.A. Res. 71/175 (Dec. 19, 2016), supra note 227; G.A. Res. 69/156 (Dec. 18, 2015), supra note 226; 
G.A. Res. 68/148 (Dec. 18, 2013), supra note 224. 
 
245  G.A. Res. 70/1, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 18 (Sept. 25, 
2015), supra note 52.