The Impact of the CEDAW Convention on Child’s Marriage under the Personal Status Act in Palestine

Abstract

This article addressed the impact of the CEDAW Convention on children's marriage and spouses’ rights under the Jordanian Personal Status Act of 1976 in Palestine. The article introduced the CEDAW Convention a nd the definition of a child and discussed the eligibility for marriage and the authority’s rights to restrict it. In terms of the Personal Status Act, children’s marriage, in which a spouse does not fulfill the legal capacity to marry is considered either void (batil) or invalid (fasid) , while in CEDAW such a marriage is regarded as void (batil) in all cases. The article also discussed the legal implications of this treatment including preventing the woman from the right of dowry (mahr) and alimony (nafaqah), preventing both spouses from the right of inheritance, preventing from filiation of the child to his/her father, and other jurisprudential implications.