Legislation passed by parliament removes all parental-consent provisions and special licences that previously enabled 16 and 17-year-olds to get married.
Grenada has voted to raise the minimum legal marriage age from 16 to 18 without exceptions.
The Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which amends Chapter 184 of the Marriage Act, was approved by Grenada’s parliament on 6 November 2025. It removes all parental-consent provisions and special licences that previously enabled 16 and 17-year-olds to get married.
While presenting the bill, Senator the Hon. Seville Francis framed the reform as essential to protecting children, ensuring gender equity, and aligning Grenada’s laws with international and regional human rights standards.
“I’m not sure that all Grenadian population realise that we were enabling child marriage for so long,” said Senator Francis, adding:
“This administration sees very fit to remove that to prioritise our children to be children; to ensure that the society we are living in is one worthy of living in.”
Senator the Hon. Seville Francis
‘Moment of moral clarity’
Senator Francis went on to highlight the well-documented consequences of child marriage – education disruption, economic dependency, and increased domestic abuse – and described the reform as a “moment of moral clarity and legislative courage” that will empower young people to define their own paths.
There is no publicly available government data on child, early, and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU) in Grenada, which means the prevalence rate is unknown.
However, the country has made a number of international and regional commitments to end child marriage, including committing to end CEFMU by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
What the law change means in practice:
- Minimum legal marriage age raised to 18, replacing previous age of 16.
- All exceptions removed, including parental or guardian consent and all special licences.
- Special marriage licences (often used for visitor or destination weddings) now explicitly require that both parties be aged at least 18.
- No retroactive effect, which means marriages legally conducted before the amendment remain valid.
