US embassy cable - 05PARIS1787

UNCLAS PARIS 001787 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ELAB, PHUM, PGOV, SCUL, SOCI, KWMN, FR 
SUBJECT: CHILD MARRIAGE IN FRANCE 
 
REF: STATE 36341 
 
1.  (U) Following is post's response to request for 
information on child marriage.  Following paras respond 
directly to reftel's three questions. 
 
2.  (U) Reftel Question A: Males can legally marry in France 
at age 18; females at 15 (Article 144, Civil Code).  Girls 
between 15 and 18 can be married with the consent of one 
parent; girls under 15 and boys under 18 who wish to marry 
require a favorable decision from the State Prosecutor. 
 
3.  (U)  Reftel Question B: Underage marriage is not a 
problem in the population at large in France.  According to a 
recent report by a working group focused on women immigrants 
in France, the problem of underage or forced marriage is 
greatest in immigrant communities from Mali, Mauritania, 
Senegal, North Africa, Turkey, and Asia.  The High Council of 
Immigration (HCI), a government body, cites the number of 
young women in France who are "susceptible" to forced 
marriages at around 70,000, a number derived from NGOs who 
work with at-risk populations. (NOTE: the government does not 
have the means to collect official statistics on the matter, 
and the description of the population "susceptible" to forced 
marriage is necessarily broader than the number of persons 
who may actually be subjected to it.) 
 
4.  (U) Reftel Question C: There are no US-funded initiatives 
addressing child marriage in France. 
Leach