The Hidden Child Brides of the Syrian Civil War: Vulnerable and Voiceless in Human Rights Law and Practice

This book provides a comprehensive account of one significantly underreported aspect of violence affecting young refugee girls today, that of forced child marriage. It examines the ongoing, insidious practice via the lens of international human rights laws and contextualising human rights laws and discourses in relation to Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Jordanian understandings of international law and human rights, where the practice in directly impacting young Syrian refugee girls who are seeking refuge in Jordan with their displaced families.

The book finds that in a juxtaposition of human rights definitions and obligations, between the traditional and modern, the religious and the secular, there are mixed implications for the realisation of universal human rights and that this has consequences for the most vulnerable--child refugees. As a result, Syrian children exist in a precarious situation. They are living in a foreign state with an unclear legal status, are largely unidentified, and, in effect, stateless. It is in this liminal space that Syrian children are vulnerable and voiceless and highly exposed to forced marriages and the resultant violence and possibly death.

While allowed to continue, the practice of child marriage not only severely impedes upon progressive international human rights efforts to eliminate gender-based violence, slavery, and discrimination, but significantly impacts on children’s physical, mental and emotional health, and their opportunities for growth and development in society.

As a case study this book seeks to inform how vulnerable Syrian children have come to be increasingly confronted by child marriage and to consider why it occurred and continues to occur, even though the idea of children being forcibly marriage is considered ethically and legally objectionable within international human rights law.

Simona Strungaru is a human rights scholar, recently completing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Sociology and Criminology in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New England, Australia. Strungaru’s research interests are broadly in children’s rights, international law, international organisations, and critical theory. Her doctoral thesis critically examined the power structures and mechanisms within the United Nations (UN) limiting effective implementation of justice policies and procedures in response to ongoing cases of human rights abuses perpetrated by UN peacekeepers against host-nationals during missions. Strungaru also lived more than a decade in the Middle East and has significant professional working experience in liaison and government administration roles for the Australian Government.