A/HRC/4/23 page 15 42. In its general recommendation No. 21 CEDAW states that “polygamy is practised in a number of countries. Polygamous marriage contravenes a woman’s right to equality with men, and can have such serious emotional and financial consequences for her and her dependents that such marriages ought to be discouraged and prohibited. The Committee notes with concern that some States parties, whose constitutions guarantee equal rights, permit polygamous marriage in accordance with personal or customary law. This violates the constitutional rights of women, and breaches the provisions of article 5 (a) of the Convention” (para. 14). Furthermore, paragraph 39 states that States parties should require registration of all marriages, inter alia to ensure the prohibition of polygamy. 43. Persons trafficked to be forced into marriage also often become victims of physical, sexual and psychological abuse not only by their husbands, but by relatives of their spouses, especially members of his household, and sometimes, if victims resist the marriage or attempt to flee once it has been formalized, they are subject to abuse, ostracism, or even lethal violence, by members of their own families.16 The power and control directed at victims of forced marriage by their in-laws reinforces the spouse’s domination and traps victims in conditions of domestic and sexual servitude, or even enslavement. 44. Trafficking for the purpose of forced marriage may also take place in situations of armed conflict where women are recruited, transported, and forced to act as “wives” of soldiers. In these contexts, and under conditions of extreme violence and deprivation, women and girls are subjected to, inter alia, ongoing rape and domestic servitude. In May 2004, the Special Court for Sierra Leone entered a new count of “Crimes against Humanity - Other Inhumane Acts (Forced Marriage)” into its statute. This amendment, which allows for the prosecution of “forced marriage”, followed the widespread coercing of women into forced marriages by men fighting on both sides of the armed conflict in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) identified forced marriage as sexual slavery, denounced certain aspects of customary marriage practised in Sierra Leone, and pointed out that the country was failing to comply with its international obligations in this regard. TRC further noted its agreement with scholars who argued that the extreme violence that women suffered during the conflict did not arise solely out of the conditions of the war, but was directly linked to the violence experienced by women during peacetime in Sierra Leone.17 45. Forced marriage, in itself a form of violence against women, further engenders gender-based violence, as described by CEDAW: forced marriages and other violent and coercive practices may “justify gender-based violence as a form of protection or control of 16 17 Interviews with victims of forced marriages at Sanctuary for Families. See note 2 above. Karine Belair, “Unearthing the customary law foundations of ‘forced marriages’ during Sierra Leone’s civil war: the possible impact of international criminal law customary marriage and women’s rights in post-conflict Sierra Leone”, Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, vol. 15, No. 3.