ABSTRACT
The mainstream approach to child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) is geared towards abolition. The legal human rights framework focuses on prohibiting underage marriage, which is defined as marriage below the age of 18. This chapter presents five critiques: the neglect of the complex interaction of socio-economic structural factors and social norms as drivers of CEFM; the universalist assumption of the chronological age of 18 as the marker of adulthood; the neglect of a gender perspective; the theoretical grounding in the neocolonial savage-victim-saviour paradigm; and the naive belief in legal change as a driver of social change. The alternative decolonized approach that the chapter proposes leads to a shift in emphasis to consent, with due attention, though, for how power is mediated by age and gender. A gender perspective necessitates a shift from protection to agency, with due acknowledgement, however, of the structural causes of CEFM.
