Drafters should consider following the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s suggestions on prevention of forced marriages. Laws should provide for: awareness-raising and training for women, girls and their families on human rights; information in multiple languages about the laws and best practices, as well as highlighting consequences for perpetrators and protection measures for women and girls; information to women and girls about protection measures available to them; and support for NGOs, particularly those that work with immigrant communities. See: Resolution 1662, ¶ 7.5.

Drafters should also look to the report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of trafficking in persons, especially women and children for guidance on preventative measures. States should implement laws and various measures that target the demand for forced marriages; monitor and establish protection measures in the marriage market trade; ensure that background and criminal history checks are a necessary condition for men who apply for foreign spouse visas; ensure that girls have equal access to education; review and develop civil remedies for victims, including simpler annulment procedures, civil tort remedies and extended statutes of limitation in forced marriages; support organizations assisting victims of violence against women and create more facilities to assist these victims; consider criminalizing the specific offence of forced marriage; prosecute other related crimes, such as rape, sexual abuse and violence, and; prohibit children under the age of 18 years from marrying and other harmful practices, such as polygamy and marriage by proxy. (See: Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 entitled “Human Rights Council,” 2007)

Drafters in donor countries should consider legislation that provides foreign assistance and capacity-building to prevent forced and child marriages. For example, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act (H.R. 2410), which aims at preventing child marriages in developing countries. The bill envisions a multi-year strategy to combat child marriage in developing countries with a high incidence of the practice. The strategy would seek to empower at-risk girls under 18 years of age through diplomacy and “attention to human rights, legal reforms and the rule of law, and programmatic initiatives in the areas of education, health, income generation, changing social norms, human rights, and democracy building.” The bill would obligate relevant U.S. agencies to gather data on the incidence of child marriages in those countries and include updates about the practice in the U.S. Department of State human rights reports. The bill, however, defines child marriage as the marriage of a child who has not yet attained the age as that set by the country. This knowledge asset recommends that child marriage be defined as the marriage of a child under the age of 18 years.