Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.3 para 75 (d) Full recommendation: In order to promote and support the empowerment of women in all spheres of life, it is recommended that the Government: Ensure that women have equal rights to enter into marriage and during the marriage relationship, as well as at its dissolution. Assessment using Impact Iran human rights indicators1 In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the legal minimum age for marriage is 13 years old for girls and 15 years old for boys.2 However, children who have reached puberty can marry with parental consent and court approval.3 The predefined age of puberty in Iran, and the age of legal majority, is 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys.4 Marriage before puberty is prohibited in accordance with Article 1062 of the Civil Code and Article 50 of the Family Protection Act5 and is punished under Article 646 of the Islamic Penal Code (2013).6 However, with the permission of a court, a legal guardian has the right to marry off his minor daughter.7 Additionally, virgin girls who above the age of 13 years old who are marrying for the first time, regardless of their age, legally require their father’s or paternal grandfather’s permission to marry.8 Between March 2018 and March 2019, the National Organization for Civil Registration reported 133,087 marriages involving girls under the age of 18, a number that includes over 30,000 marriages involving girls between the age of 10 and 14 years old and 209 marriages involving girls under the age of 11. 9 Numbers, however, are likely to be higher as many child marriages are unregistered.10 1 CCPR.3.1.S.1; CCPR.3.1.S.3; CCPR.12.2.S.1; CCPR.23.1.S.1; CCPR.23.3.S.1; CCPR.23.4.S.1; CCPR.3.1.P.1; CCPR.12.2.P.1; CCPR.23.1.P.1; CCPR.23.3.P.1; CCPR.23.4.P.1; CCPR.23.1.O.1; CCPR.23.3.O.1; CCPR.23.4.O.1 2 Article 1041 of the Civil Code as amended up until December 2000, NGO Impact Iran Coalition, Joint Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 3 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 4 Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4, paras. 27–28 https://undocs.org/en/CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4 5 Universal Periodic Review, Iran, 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/43/12 6 Islamic Penal Code (2013), Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/islamicpenal-code-of-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-book-five/ 7 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/wpcontent/uploads/pdf_en/LegalCom/Womens_Rights_Commentary_389929723.pdf 8 NGO Submission Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 9 The National Institution of Registry www.sabteahval.ir/avej/tab-1499.aspx 10 Center for Human Rights in Iran, ‘Mass child marriage ceremony in Iran denied by local authorities’, 10 March 2016 1

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