Changing Social Norms on Child Marriage through a Legislative Change: A Case Study of the Revised Family Code Enforcement in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Government took a major step to end the practice of child marriage in 2000 with the revision of the old 1960 Family Code. The revision pulled up the minimum legal age for marriage from 15 to 18 and made the practice of child marriage punishable in the criminal code for the first time. Revising the Family Code, however, was not going to end the practice by itself. The purpose of this case study is to find out hurdles that had to be addressed and overcome, and supplementary policies that were adopted to help end the practice of child marriage. The study identifies a long list of barriers to the effective implementation of the Revised Family Code including the existence of harmful social norms and practices, capacity gaps in the legal system, and limitations in access to media in large parts of the country. To overcome these and other "delivery challenges", the leaders of the government and the civil society engaged the citizens and community leaders in public awareness campaigns, developed programs to empower women and children in local communities, and improved the judicial system, among other things. These interventions led to changes in social norms and public attitudes regarding child marriage, and more importantly, to a substantial reduction in child marriage throughout the country.