Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum
Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
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General Assembly resolution 2018 (XX) of 1 November
1965
The General Assembly,
Recognizing that the family group should be strengthened because
it is the basic unit of every society, and that men and women of
full age have the right to marry and to found a family, that they
are entitled to equal rights as to marriage and that marriage shall
be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses, in accordance with the provisions of article 16 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Recalling its resolution 843 (IX) of 17 December 1954,
Recalling further article 2 of the Supplementary Convention on
the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and
Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956, which makes certain provisions
concerning the age of marriage, consent to marriage and registration
of marriages,
Recalling also that Article 13, paragraph 1 b, of the Charter of
the United Nations provides that the General Assembly shall make
recommendations for the purpose of assisting in the realization of
human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as
to race, sex, language or religion,
Recalling likewise that, under Article 64 of the Charter, the
Economic and Social Council may make arrangements with the Members
of the United Nations to obtain reports on the steps taken to give
effect to its own recommendations and to recommendations on matters
falling within its competence made by the General Assembly,
1. Recommends that, where not already provided by existing
legislative or other measures, each Member State should take the
necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and
its traditional and religious practices, to adopt such legislative
or other measures as may be appropriate to give effect to the
following principles:
Principle I
( a ) No marriage shall be legally entered into without the
full and free consent of both parties, such consent to be expressed
by them in person, after due publicity and in the presence of the
authority competent to solemnize the marriage and of witnesses, as
prescribed by law.
( b ) Marriage by proxy shall be permitted only when the
competent authorities are satisfied that each party has, before a
competent authority and in such manner as may be prescribed by law,
fully and freely expressed consent before witnesses and not
withdrawn such consent.
Principle II
Member States shall take legislative action to specify a minimum
age for marriage, which in any case shall not be less than fifteen
years of age; no marriage shall be legally entered into by any
person under this age, except where a competent authority has
granted a dispensation as to age, for serious reasons, in the
interest of the intending spouses.
Principle III
All marriages shall be registered in an appropriate official
register by the competent authority.
2. Recommends that each Member State should bring the
Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and
Registration of Marriages contained in the present resolution before
the authorities competent to enact legislation or to take other
action at the earliest practicable moment and, if possible, no later
than eighteen months after the adoption of the Recommendation;
3. Recommends that Member States should inform the
Secretary-General, as soon as possible after the action referred to
in paragraph 2 above, of the measures taken under the present
Recommendation to bring it before the competent authority or
authorities, with particulars regarding the authority or authorities
considered as competent;
4. Recommends further that Member States should report to
the Secretary-General at the end of three years, and thereafter at
intervals of five years, on their law and practice with regard to
the matters dealt with in the present Recommendation, showing the
extent to which effect has been given or is proposed to be given to
the provisions of the Recommendation and such modifications as have
been found or may be found necessary in adapting or applying it;
5. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare for the
Commission on the Status of Women a document containing the reports
received from Governments concerning methods of implementing the
three basic principles of the present Recommendation;
6. Invites the Commission on the Status of Women to examine
the reports received from Member States pursuant to the present
Recommendation and to report thereon to the Economic and Social
Council with such recommendations as it may deem fitting.
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