nam 22 uu 4500 10.17176/20170419-151909 DE-Verfassungsblog cr||||| 170419s2017||||xx#|||||o|||| ||| 0|eng|| 10.17176/20170419-151909 doi eng 342 23 Witting, Sabine Author aut ‘Girls belong in school, and not in front of the altar’: Is the German Bill on child marriages violating international law? Witting, Sabine Verfassungsblog 2017-04-19 Text txt rdacontent Computermedien c rdamedia Online-Ressource cr rdacarrier As much as international law categorizes child marriage as harmful practice due to its potential wide ranging negative effects on education, health, increased risk of violence and sexually transmitted diseases, and poverty, the regulation of already existing marriages should not aim to be aligned with the age of marriage. Already existing child marriages have to be treated differently, as they already created a lived reality for the partners and cannot just be reversed, as this might end up in unwanted legal and practical consequences for the child. Therefore, with regards to already existing marriages, it is a misconception that the only possible way to end child marriage is to actually ‘end’ child marriage. funded by the government CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Best Interest of the Child Child Marriage refugees UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 https://staging.verfassungsblog.de/girls-belong-in-school-and-not-in-front-of-the-altar-is-the-german-bill-on-child-marriages-violating-international-law/ raw object