Also cited as a problem in the UN report, why there are many early marriages in Kosovo

The serious economic situation, the dropout of school and domestic violence are some of the main reasons for early marriages in Kosovo, mostly affecting the daughters of Roma communities, Ashkali and Egyptian, civil society in Kosovo say.

Early marriage in Kosovo has been raised as a concern in the report on human rights in the world for 2021, published by the US State Department on 12 April.

The UN quoted a report by the Kosovo Statistics Agency (ASK) and the United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF), which says 1 out of 25 women and 1 out of 50 men aged 2024 were married before the age of 18 in Kosovo.

According to this report published in 2019-2020, the percentage is much higher among females and males of this age from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities. In fact, 1 out of 3 women and 1 out of 10 men aged 2024 of these communities were married before the age of 18.

Even in the UN report, the cause of this situation is estimated to be poverty and lack of education.

Victims of Violence as a Cause of Early Marriage

I married 14 years old. We fought and we talked. She left my house at 6 a.m. I told him I had nowhere to go. He hurt me so much. My teeth are broken. I'm pregnant, I've been hit in the chest, I've been breath-blown.

This is a story from a Roma girl now 18 years old for Radio Free Europe last November.

The same is true of many other cases, said Judge Devoll, of the Organisation for Rights of Roma Women and Girls, Ashkali and Egyptian.

Devolli told Radio Free Europe that information and awareness of the families of these communities regarding early marriages is a key factor in preventing this phenomenon.

According to her, most family members force their daughters to marry the claim that they will find a better life, but in fact, as she added, in most cases the opposite occurs.

Those girls drop out of schooling, stay economically dependent throughout their lives, submit to illegal marriages, give birth to children when they are children and have no knowledge of child education, then very often there are victims of domestic violence and other forms of abuse”, she said.

Muhamet Arifi, chairman of the Balkan Sunflowers” organisation, which deals with education and rights issues of Roma communities, Ashkali and Egyptian in Kosovo, also thinks.

According to a report released by his organisation in December 2020, about 10 percent of the women of the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities have been married under the age of 18 in the past five years.

Arifi told Radio Free Europe that one of the main reasons is unemployment.

The report includes 574 families in four municipalities -- Fushe Kosovo, Obilic, Gracanica and Shtime.

Of all these families, according to the report, there have been 53 marriages under the age of 18 in the last five years. There are 43 pregnant women under 18.

More than 50 percent of the population in these municipalities is under the age of 18.

We have many students who have finished faculty and master and are unemployed. Others who are younger have seen them study and are not employed. They marry, they have children and they take social and live like that”, he said.

The Main Problem, Child Training

Kosovo's Statistics Agency reports that only 64 percent of children of Roma communities, Ashkali and Egypt attend lower high school, while only 31 percent attend high school.

By the Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection in Kosovo, KOMF, say education is one of the main factors why early marriages occur. The children of these communities mostly follow the Albanian language lesson in Kosovo.

The previous 18-year-old marriage, unfortunately, is a dark reality of many girls, and this is a violation of children's rights”, Free Europe Radio, Bellaza Surdul, researcher in the KOMF organisation, told KOMF.

According to her, the other cause is health, as Kosovo does not have an integrated system of social, educational and health services, which would help educate these communities in health as well.

This, according to her, could be done on home visits by the girls of these communities.

When these visits are made at home, normally a social worker or a nurse could help in the education section, so that children can be educated in how to behave, how to protect themselves from early pregnancy, because one of the causers of early marriages is also early pregnancies”, Surdul said.

The problem of early marriages is intended to fix with the new Civil Code draft, which the Ministry of Justice in Kosovo has prepared.

According to this Civil Code, which is still expected to be approved, “no one can connect marriage until the age of 18 ends, halting the possibility of connection of early marriages under the age of 18”.

What's the early marriage?

According to a 2019 ombudsman Institute report in Kosovo, early marriage or child marriage is considered a global problem.

The child marriage, also referred to as an early marriage, is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age. Children's marriage is considered to be the form of forced marriage”, the report says.

The United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF), meanwhile, estimates that since March 2018, worldwide about 21 percent of young women have been married before the age of 18.

Also, according to W NICEF, 650 million women and girls who are alive today, were married before they were 18.

Each year, 12 million girls worldwide, marry before the age of 18 and is expected to marry 150 million girls before they are 18 years old by 2030. / REL/