Recommendation 1723 (2005)1
Forced marriages and child marriages
1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its
Resolution 1468 (2005)
on forced marriages and child marriages and asks the Committee of Ministers
to ensure its application by member states.
2. It recommends that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
instruct the appropriate intergovernmental committee to make a thorough
analysis of forced marriages and child marriages and devise a strategy
encouraging member states to take the following specific action:
2.1. institute prevention campaigns in primary, secondary and upper
secondary schools, suited to the age of the pupils targeted, informing them
of their rights and especially the right to make up one’s own mind with
regard to marriage, the right to choose one’s future partner and the right
not to marry before 18 years of age, aiming both at a general audience and
at those particularly concerned;
2.2. inform persons under threat of forced marriage of the practical steps
to be taken to forestall marriage, such as placing one’s passport in safe
keeping, lodging a complaint of theft of papers in the event of confiscation
and giving the address of the proposed holiday location;
2.3. provide emergency reception facilities where people liable to be
forcibly married can be heard, cared for and accommodated, shielding them
from the pressure brought to bear by others and from possible abduction;
2.4. financially support associations and other non-governmental
organisations that assist and support, shelter and protect potential or
actual victims;
2.5. aid victims in their physical and psychological recovery;
2.6. punish the persons who voluntarily participate in a forced or a child
marriage, including perpetrators of rape;
2.7. punish the persons who aid and abet the contracting of a forced or a
child marriage, considering as an aggravating circumstance the victim’s
dependency on these persons;
2.8. check the validity of any marriage celebrated abroad, making its
transcription subject to the presence of both spouses and authorising the
diplomatic staff to interview either or both spouses beforehand;
2.9. for this purpose, ensure that public service staff, particularly in the
judiciary, the police force, and the social, diplomatic and consular
services, are properly informed and trained to detect forced marriages;
2.10. put an end to the custom of pledges of marriage and child betrothals,
including cases involving very young minors.
1. Assembly debate
on 5 October 2005 (29th Sitting) (see
Doc. 10590,
report of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, rapporteur:
Mrs Zapfl-Helbling; and
Doc. 10678, opinion of the
Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, rapporteur: Mrs Bargholtz).
Text adopted by the Assembly on 5 October 2005 (29th Sitting).
