The Coordinator for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CDIA) warned this Sunday that 6,111 adolescents between 15 and 17 years old, most of them women, were in “early unions” in Paraguay during 2025, while demanding to repeal “all legal exceptions” which allow marriage before the age of 18.
[U.S. Affects Cuban Children’s Access to Food: FM Rodriguez: Paraguay: 6,111 Adolescents Are in Marriages and “Early Unions”, NGO Says](https://www.telesurenglish.net/paraguay-6111-adolescents-are-in-marriages-and-early-unions-ngo-says/)
On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, the Cdia disseminated a statistical bulletin warning that child, early, and forced marriages and unions constitute “a serious violation of human rights,” which disproportionately affects girls and adolescent women.
Of the total number of adolescents in early unions, 5,625 are women (83%), compared to 486 men, indicated the document based on data from the 2025 Continuous Permanent Household Survey (EPHC) of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
📊 Esta realidad forma parte de las desigualdades que visibilizamos en nuestro Boletín Estadístico del Día Internacional de la Niña 2026, que se conmemora cada 11 de octubre, junto con datos sobre violencia sexual, pobreza, educación y trabajo doméstico. pic.twitter.com/bNDxVyyZT3
— CDIA Paraguay (@CDIApy) October 9, 2026
Last year’s EPHC did not record cases of legal marriages, unlike 2024, when an estimated 745 were recorded, something that could respond to changes in the way civil status is registered and “not necessarily a real decrease in these practices,” the NGO warned.
In this regard, Cdia called for the repeal of “all legal exceptions that allow marriage before the age of 18,” which are contemplated in Law 5419/2015 that reformed articles of the Civil Code.
The norm establishes that the general minimum age for marriage is 18 years, but it contemplates an exception for adolescents aged 16 and 17, who need the consent of their parents or guardian to marry.
The bulletin also recalls that Paraguay assumed “the commitment to eliminate these exceptions” in its response to the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations.
On the other hand, the report indicates that in 2025, at least 2,804 girls and adolescents were victims of sexual abuse, compared to 582 boys, which indicates that women are almost five times more likely to be victims of this crime, according to the organization.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.