Tonga’s Parliament has passed a bill raising the legal marriage age from 15 to 18, following years of concern over underage unions in the Pacific kingdom.
The reform comes alongside a separate amendment further cementing the country’s ban on same-sex marriage, making the prohibition more explicit in law.
The decision follows years of advocacy, including stark warnings raised in the Parliament in 2016 revealing that 183 child marriages had been recorded in Tonga over a three-year period—including 17 involving 15-year-olds.
At the time, a lawmaker criticised the kingdom’s Parent Consent Act of 1926 as “embarrassing” and questioned whether it truly served its purpose of protecting children.
It is understood, some rape victims, some just 14 years old, are forced to marry their rapists under the Parent Concent Act to prevent family shame and village gossip.
Shocking Child Marriage Data
As reported by Kaniva News at the time, Deputy Speaker Lord Tuʻiʻāfitu first sounded the alarm after attending a 2016 regional conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, where 13 Asia-Pacific nations discussed strategies to end child and forced marriages.
In a report to Parliament, he disclosed that he had confronted Tonga’s record at the summit, citing cases of 15-year-olds wed with parental approval under the nearly century-old law.
He said that in the past three years, 183 child marriages had been recorded in Tonga.
From 2013 to 2015, 17 children aged 15 had married, he said.
Lord Tu’i’āfitu declined to specify the exact years of all child marriages during his parliamentary address, stating he wanted to protect the “dignity” of these young individuals.
The new legislation abolishes the controversial parental consent loophole, aligning Tonga with global human rights standards.
Same sex marriage
However, the same parliamentary session saw lawmakers strengthen the nation’s ban on same-sex marriage, adding clearer language to existing statutes.
The lawmakers were concerned that the current law did not explicitly ban same-sex marriage, but the Minister of Justice—who tabled the legislation—responded in Parliament that Tonga’s traditional and cultural laws inherently forbid such unions.
Tonga’s laws ban sex between same-sex couples under the “sodomy” rule in the Criminal Offences Act.
However, it doesn’t specify gender—such as lesbian relationships—even though the law could apply to them too.
In 2015, Lopeti Senituli, then Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated that the government intended to amend Tonga’s Deaths, Births, and Marriages Registration Act to explicitly ban same-sex marriage.
The move came in response to fears among some community and church leaders that Tonga’s planned ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the time might pressure the country to legalise same-sex unions.
NZ Grants Tongan LGBT Asylum
As Kaniva News reported early this year, a Tongan woman won the right to live in New Zealand after that country’s Refugee Tribunal ruled she faced a well-founded fear of persecution in Tonga due to her sexual orientation as a lesbian.
In its ruling, the Tribunal found that the appellant would be at risk of serious harm if she returned to Tonga because of her identity as a lesbian.
Last year, the king appointed the chief justice, but reports emerged of a petition to remove the British judge from office due to his identity as a gay man.
