A/HRC/35/5 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 29/8, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize an expert workshop to review and discuss the impact of existing strategies and initiatives to address child, early and forced marriage and prepare a report on the deliberations held during the workshop to be submitted to the Council at its thirty-fifth session. The workshop took place on 21 and 22 October 2016. About 30 experts from 17 different countries attended, including participants from government institutions, civil society organizations, research institutions, United Nations entities, the judiciary and national human rights institutions, as well as traditional leaders, parliamentarians and United Nations independent human rights experts. The list of participants at the workshop and the background document can be found on the web page of the Office for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1 2. The present report includes a summary of the views shared and recommendations made by participants. The thematic areas in the four sections below were discussed on the basis of existing guidance by human rights mechanisms and the findings and recommendations contained in the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage (A/HRC/26/22 and Corr.1) and the report of the Secretary-General on child, early and forced marriage (A/71/253).2 II. Impact of existing legislative measures 3. The experts stressed the need for different legal frameworks to address child and forced marriage. 4. Experts also stressed that increasing focus is being placed on the adoption of laws that prohibit child marriage, with a minimum age set at 18 years for boys and girls. However, there are persisting challenges in implementing child marriage legislation in plural legal systems. The enactment of laws applicable to all girls regardless of their personal and religious status was mentioned as being critical in order to overcome the disparities in marriage provisions in plural legal systems. In Kenya, for example, the 2014 Marriage Act sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 regardless of the personal status or the faith of the child and encompasses all personal status and supersedes religious and customary laws. It was stressed that constitutional reform can be an opportunity to ensure legal protection against child and forced marriage. 5. Where compulsory birth registration is provided by law, it has helped to track the ages of people being married in traditional or religious bodies and contributed to protecting girls. In Bangladesh, the use of smart cards and digital devices for identity cards to track the age of those who married in traditional bodies had a positive impact in that regard. Accurately assessing the impact of birth registration within communities requires consistent data-collection systems and strong monitoring processes that are often not provided for in the law or do not exist. 6. Participants agreed that making child marriage a criminal offence helps to ensure adequate protection for victims, in particular if the law foresees the issuance of protection orders. Also, in some contexts, the criminalization of child marriage had empowered professionals working with children to have open discussions about the issue, where they had previously felt restrained by concerns of being perceived as insensitive to cultural specificities, especially when the practice affects minority groups. However, it was also stressed that legislation criminalizing child marriage places the burden of proof overwhelmingly upon girls and women and, in practice, a lack of protection measures for those who report such practices often results into withdrawals of complaints. Such reporting 1 2 2 www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WRGS/Pages/VAW.aspx. See the background document for a summary of relevant guidance and summary under each topic.