COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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SRI LANKA 7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong><br />
See also Muslims<br />
20.11 The SIGI Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Sri Lanka 342 , undated (website<br />
accessed on February <strong>2012</strong>) recorded that:<br />
―Sri Lanka‘s legal age of marriage is 18 years for both men and women. Early marriage<br />
is less common than in other South Asian countries, but does occur in some<br />
communities that follow certain religious beliefs and cultural practices. For example,<br />
Islamic law argues against the concept of minimum age of marriage.<br />
―Polygamy is illegal in Sri Lanka. However, Islamic law allows Muslim men to take up to<br />
four wives. In reality, only a very few Muslim men have multiple wives, and those that<br />
wish to enter a second marriage must give prior notice to their first wives.‖<br />
20.12 On 24 August 2010 the Daily News 343 reported that ‗premature marriages‘ in Sri Lanka<br />
were showing a diminishing trend.<br />
―This positive growth was achieved due to the high literacy rate and development of the<br />
thinking pattern among children, Peradeniya University social analyst and researcher Dr<br />
M D H Senevirathna said.‖<br />
―Urban girls in Sri Lanka marry later than their rural counterparts. Nearly 60 percent of<br />
the urban girls between 18 to 24 years are married. Marriage at an early age is still a<br />
common practice in most rural areas, he said.‖<br />
20.13 The UN Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination<br />
against Women, Sri Lanka 344 observed:<br />
―The Committee is concerned about the preservation of a combination of general,<br />
customary and religious marital laws that contain discriminatory elements against<br />
women. The Committee is concerned that polygamy is not prohibited, that there is no<br />
minimum age of marriage recognized under Muslim personal law, and that Tamil<br />
women need their husband‘s consent to appear in court or undertake any transaction.<br />
The Committee is further concerned about the lack of progress in recognizing no-fault<br />
divorce and women‘s economic rights upon divorce.‖<br />
20.14 The UN Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural<br />
Rights 345 ,dated 9 December 2010, mentioned that ―… the Muslim Personal Law<br />
allowing early marriage of girls as young as 12 years old… ‖ had not been repealed yet<br />
and added that: ―The Committee notes with serious concern that the State party relies<br />
342 Social Institutions and Gender Index, Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Sri Lanka, undated,<br />
http://genderindex.org/country/sri-lanka date accessed 3 February <strong>2012</strong><br />
343 Daily News, Drop in premature marriages, 24 August 2010<br />
http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/08/24/news42.asp date accessed 6 October 2010<br />
344 UN Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,<br />
Sri Lanka 344 , 4 February 2011 http://www2.ohchr.org/tbru/cedaw/CEDAW-C-LKA-CO-7.pdf , date<br />
accessed 25 May 2011, p3<br />
345 UN Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,<br />
Sri Lanka 345 , 4 February 2011 http://www2.ohchr.org/tbru/cedaw/CEDAW-C-LKA-CO-7.pdf , date<br />
accessed 25 May 2011, p4<br />
138 The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.
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