Stop child marriage! Establish a minimum age of marriage in Yemen.

There are many reasons to be concerned about citizens in Yemen caught in the throes of armed conflict between the Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition. In 2018, the United Nations described Yemen as "the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe."

Human Rights Watch has documented widespread hunger and disease, indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed and injured thousands of Yemeni citizens, and the use of banned weapons, child soldiers, arbitrary detention, and torture.

It is against this already-grim backdrop that we've documented the rights of young Yemeni women that hang in the balance as violence persists around them.

Yemen is one of the few countries in its region without any legal minimum age for marriage. Yemeni girls are forced by their families to marry, in some cases when they are as young as eight years old.

Girls who marry young often drop out of school, are more likely to die in childbirth, and face a higher risk of physical and sexual abuse than women who marry at 18 or later.

Yemeni women also cannot marry without the permission of their male guardian and do not have equal rights to divorce, inheritance, or child custody. Lack of legal protection leaves them exposed to domestic and sexual violence.

It's beyond time for Yemen to protect women and girls from early marriage. Add your name to join Human Rights Watch in calling for the urgent implementation of a minimum marriage age in Yemen!