GRPA & Blossom Inc Call for Immediate Reform of Guyana’s Child Marriage Laws

 On this Human Rights Day, December 10, 2025, the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) and Blossom Inc renew their call for urgent reform of Guyana’s child-marriage laws to protect children from harm, exploitation, and lifelong inequality. Child marriage remains one of the most pervasive human-rights violations affecting girls in Guyana, despite strong international and regional commitments to end the practice. 

As organisations committed to promoting and safeguarding children’s rights and wellbeing, we remain deeply concerned about the persistence of legal provisions that allow child and early marriage in Guyana. While the Marriage Act, Cap. 45:01 establishes 18 as the minimum legal age for marriage, sections 31(1), 32(2), 33, 42, and 65 allow exceptions that permit the marriage of persons under 18 — including girls as young as 16 with parental consent, and even younger in circumstances such as pregnancy. These provisions, though historically introduced to address specific situations, now function as harmful loopholes that legitimise child marriage and expose girls to significant risk, including rape and other forms of violence. 

Available national and international data underline the severity of the issue. According to estimates from Girls Not Brides, 32% of girls in Guyana are married before age 18 and 6% before age 15, while 12% of boys marry before age 18. These figures place Guyana among the countries with the highest prevalence of child and early marriage in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The Guyana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014 provides deeper insight into how entrenched and unevenly distributed this practice is. Among women aged 15–49, 4% were married before age 15, and among women aged 20–49, 27% were married before age 18. Rates are significantly higher in hinterland and Indigenous communities. Regions 1 and 7/8 record the highest percentages of marriages before age 15 (9%), while Region 9 has the highest proportion of women married before age 18 — 41%. The survey also shows that 13% of girls aged 15–19 are currently married or in union, with the highest prevalence in Region 1 (32%). These patterns strongly correlate with poverty, lower levels of education, rural residence, and Amerindian household headship. 

The MICS findings also reveal harmful power dynamics within these unions. Among married girls aged 15–19, 16% are married to men 10 or more years older, and almost one-third are married to men 5–9 years older — age gaps that amplify risks of rape, unintended pregnancy, HIV and STIs, and domestic violence. Additionally, 3% of women in union live in polygynous marriages, with prevalence highest in Region 10 (10%), demonstrating how gender inequality further compounds vulnerability. 

Despite the gravity of these findings, no updated national research has been conducted since 2014. This lack of current data significantly hampers evidence-based policymaking, targeted interventions, and effective monitoring of national progress. We therefore call not only for legislative reform, but also for renewed investment in rigorous national research to assess the present-day prevalence, drivers, and consequences of child and early marriage, including its impact on Indigenous communities, migrant families, and vulnerable adolescents. Without updated data, the country cannot adequately respond to evolving trends or design programmes that meet the realities of today’s children and adolescents. 

Child marriage cuts short childhoods, disrupts education, limits economic opportunity, heightens health risks, and deepens cycles of poverty and gender-based violence. It fundamentally violates the right to free and full consent in marriage — a right children cannot meaningfully exercise. 

Guyana has made significant commitments under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, CEDAW, and the Sustainable Development Goals, all of which call for the elimination of child, early, and forced marriage. To honour these commitments, meaningful legislative and policy action is urgently required. 

GRPA and Blossom Inc therefore urge the Government of Guyana to amend the Marriage Act to eliminate all exceptions that permit marriage under 18, strengthen protection and accountability systems, expand adolescent-friendly health and social services, and invest in comprehensive community education. We further call for a national research agenda that updates the evidence on child marriage and informs effective interventions across all regions. 

On Human Rights Day, we reaffirm our commitment to partnering with government, civil society, Indigenous leaders, and communities to end child marriage in Guyana. Every child deserves the freedom to learn, grow, and determine their own future — free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.