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The social construction of childhood: is a minimum age of marriage attainable in plural societies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2024

Julie Ada Tchoukou Open the ORCID record for Julie Ada Tchoukou [Opens in a new window]
Julie Ada Tchoukou*
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
*
Email: jadatcho@uottawa.ca
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Abstract

This paper explores the way in which childhood is socially constructed in the context of child marriage regulation. Despite extreme social and cultural diversity, there is a core ideology in UN human rights instruments, around which official versions of childhood pivot. International law recommends setting the minimum age of marriage at 18years. This article problematizes the progressively depoliticizing effects of a seemingly neutral regulatory drive at the heart of the UN’s promotion of a standardized construction of childhood. The immediate purpose of this article is not to offer solutions to child marriage, but to bring together some elements that may form a basis for understanding the way in which conceptions of childhood are contextually constructed. My hope is that a familiarity with these social perceptions will help to explain the present struggle and resistance to apply universal rights constructions of childhood to non-western societies.

Keywords

human rights lawchildren’s rightsgovernancenormativityUNCRCchild marriage
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , First View , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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