Child Marriage and the Law: A Comparative Study of the United States and Nigeria
By Dawn Obot ’28
In 2010, Nigerian Senator Sani Ahmed Yerima paid a $100,000 dowry to marry a 13 year old Egyptian girl, a girl 36 years his junior. (1) The marriage, conducted under Islamic law, sparked national and international outrage, giving birth to the #ChildNotBride movement in Nigeria. (2) Although Nigeria’s Child's Rights Act of 2003 sets the legal minimum marriage age at 18, weak enforcement and conflicts with Islamic Sharia Law make the statute almost ineffective. (3) According to UNICEF, West and Central Africa are home to 60 million child brides, with Nigeria having the largest share of the region’s total at 23.6 million. (4) 23.6 million girls under the age of 18 are suspended from education and forced into domestic roles, often making them susceptible to physical and emotional abuse and health complications. (5)
Child marriage is often viewed by Western observers as a “third-world problem,” a reflection of the backward, overly-conservative cultures of these developing countries; however, the lack of protection for young women does not end in Africa. In the United States, only 16 states have passed restrictions or bans on child marriage, leaving most of the country with outdated laws that allow minors to marry with parental or judicial consent. (6) The persistence of child marriage across nations reflects the failure of legal institutions to protect minors and a rising need for comprehensive and unambiguous legislation that safeguards children’s rights worldwide.
Child marriage refers to any union involving a child under the age of 18 with an adult or with another child, and is recognised internationally as a human rights violation. For example, Article 16 of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women states: “The 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.” (7) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a commission chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, affirms that consent to marriage cannot be “free and full” when one of the parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make this decision. (8) This declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 and laid the foundation for modern international human rights law protecting women and children. (9) Although these agreements have been endorsed by multiple countries, domestic laws often fail to align with them, leading to gaps that highlight the weakness of international enforcement. This gap is evident in countries like Nigeria and the United States, where child marriage remains permissible under certain legal conditions.
Nigeria, like the United States, lacks concrete protections against child marriage. Unlike the US, which has a unified legal system, Nigeria’s conflict between Sharia law and federal statutes undermines consistent enforcement. Sharia law is a religious legal code that is applied in 12 of Nigeria’s northern states. (10) Although its application is restricted to Muslims, Sharia law often contradicts with Nigeria’s more secular federal law, leaving legislation up to interpretation, like in the case of child marriage. Sharia Law, which is based on the Quran, does not specify any age requirements for marriage and instead, maintains that puberty determines a girl’s readiness for marriage, despite medical research showing that girls can start puberty as young as eight years old. (11) In 2003, the Nigerian federal government outlawed child marriage and set the marriage age at 18; however, due to Nigeria’s legal system, the law only takes effect in a specific state if the state assembly enacts it as well. (12) As of 2016, the Child's Rights Act was codified into law in only 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states, leaving 12 states with no statutes against child marriage. (13)
Many other factors also contribute to Nigeria’s high child-marriage rate, including poverty and cultural attitudes towards gender. An interviewee from The Experience of Married Adolescent Girls in Northern Nigeria, a study by Annabel Erulkar and Mairo Bello, says, “It’s normal practice amongst the Hausa that at the age of 15 or so, one should get married…it reduces the burden on the family and brings peace to the family.” (14) This exemplifies the increased pressure of Nigerian girls, especially in the North, to forsake their education and agency to bring wealth and status to their families. In Nigeria, where protections for women’s rights remain inconsistent, the government often fails to prioritise the security of girls.
From the US Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls in 2016 to the Biden Administration’s 2022 National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality, the United States has consistently positioned itself as a global advocate for child rights. However, this international leadership contrasts with the country’s lack of legal protections against child marriage. In 2018, Deleware was the first state to completely ban child marriage, setting the minimum marriage age at 18 with no exceptions. (15) However, most states still have legal loopholes that allow minors to marry with parental consent, judicial approval, or in cases of pregnancy. (16) Sometimes, these loopholes carry no minimum age specifications, a dangerous oversight that could allow for the exploitation of vulnerable children. As of July 2025, child marriage is completely illegal in only 16 states and Washington D.C., while remaining legal in the remaining 34 states. (17)
As of June 2025, California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma have no minimum age for marriage when taking into account exemptions to the statutory marriage age requirement. (18) According to Unchained At Last, between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 minors were legally married in the United States, with some as young as 10 years old, although most were 16 and 17. (19) Most of these children were young girls being wed to adult men an average of four years older. (20) With 34 states still lacking a minimum age requirement for marriage, the United States undermines its credibility as a global advocate for children’s rights.
Although Nigeria and the United States both lack comprehensive and widespread laws that protect minors from marriages, there are fundamental differences in the culture and political structure of these countries that shape the trajectory of future progress. Nigeria, unlike the United States, has its laws split along parallel legal systems: Sharia Law and federal or state law. Sharia Law governs the Islamic populations in the North, which can conflict with federal law. This, coupled with Nigeria’s rampant corruption and patriarchal norms, allows for impunity and legal loopholes—conditions under which a senator can marry a 13 year old. The United States, however, operates under federalism where marriage law is determined by states, rather than the federal government. Under this system, most states with age restrictions for marriage still have loopholes that allow child marriages in cases of pregnancy or parental approval.
Child marriage is also not treated as a national priority in the United States, largely because many Americans are unaware about how frequently it occurs in their own country, and there is a widespread assumption that child marriage is a problem limited to underdeveloped or developing countries. Similar to Nigeria, the US embraces cultural ideals of purity and prioritizes the nuclear family, which can create conditions where marriage for minors is encouraged or accepted. By contrast, Nigeria identifies child marriage as a critical national concern, reflected in its public discourse and targeted government interventions. Both nations, though shaped by different legal and cultural structures, fail to adequately protect the wellbeing of minors on a national scale.
It has been 22 years since initial child marriage laws went into effect in Nigeria and 7 years in the United States; however, the work is far from done. To ensure that every child is fully protected legally from child marriage, stricter enforcement of existing laws and widespread incorporation is needed. In the United States, activists and non-profits such as the National Coalition to End Child Marriage, which includes groups like UNICEF USA, are continuously spreading awareness about the prevalence of child marriage in the US, amending federal laws that enable child marriage, and supporting “state-level advocacy” in order to guarantee full enforcement of minimum marriage ages with no loopholes. (21) In Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has outlined its key objectives: increasing children’s access to education, committing to the retention of the girl child in school and strengthening “sectoral mechanisms” to end child marriage in Nigeria. (22) Nigeria has committed to eliminating child marriages by the year 2030. (23) Though these efforts look promising, until both countries close loopholes and priortize children’s rights in practice, countless children, especially young girls, will continue to fall victim to the harmful realities of child marriage.
Endnotes
Hirsch, Afua. 2013. “Nigerian senator who 'married girl of 13' accused of breaking Child Rights Act.” The Guardian.
Hirsch, Afua. 2013. “Nigerian senator who 'married girl of 13' accused of breaking Child Rights Act.” The Guardian.
Hirsch, Afua. 2013. “Nigerian senator who 'married girl of 13' accused of breaking Child Rights Act.” The Guardian.
“Child marriage atlas.” n.d. Child marriage atlas - Girls Not Brides.
“Child marriage atlas.” n.d. Child marriage atlas - Girls Not Brides.
“Child Marriage in the U.S.” Unchained At Last,
“Child marriage - UNICEF DATA.” n.d. https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/child-marriage/
Child marriage - UNICEF DATA.” n.d.
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations.” n.d. the United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Igboko, Gabriella. 2022. “The Child's Right Act vs. Sharia Law: Girl-child Marriage In Nigeria.” Student Briefs. https://studentbriefs.law.gwu.edu/ilpb/2022/05/03/the-childs-right-act-vs-sharia-law-girl-child-marriage-in-nigeria/.
Igboko, Gabriella. 2022. “The Child's Right Act vs. Sharia Law: Girl-child Marriage In Nigeria.” Student Briefs. https://studentbriefs.law.gwu.edu/ilpb/2022/05/03/the-childs-right-act-vs-sharia-law-girl-child-marriage-in-nigeria/.
“Nigeria Legal Profile Report.” n.d. Proelium Law LLP. https://proeliumlaw.com/nigeria-legal-profile/.
Igboko, Gabriella.
“The Experience of Married Adolescent Girls in Northern Nigeria.” n.d. ohchr. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/ForcedMarriage/NGO/PopulationCouncil24.pdf.
PBS. “Delaware Becomes First State to Ban Child Marriage.” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/delaware-becomes-first-state-to-ban-child-marriage/
PBS
Padilla, Mariel. “Child marriage is still prevalent across the U.S. Here's why.” The 19th News https://19thnews.org/2023/07/explaining-child-marriage-laws-united-states/.
PBS
“Child Marriage in the U.S.” Unchained At Last
“Child Marriage in the U.S.” Unchained At Last
“United States’ child marriage problem.” n.d. National Coalition to End Child Marriage in the United States https://www.unchainedatlast.org/child-marriage-in-the-u-s/.
“Strategy to End Child Marriage.” n.d. Girls not Brides. https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/documents/633/Strategy-to-end-child-marriage_for-printing_08-03-2017.pdf.
“Child marriage atlas.” n.d. Child marriage atlas - Girls Not Brides. https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/learning-resources/child-marriage-atlas/atlas/nigeria/.
