Anna Sporrer of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) will implement a policy preventing persons under the age of 18 from marrying, while aiming to end marriages between cousins.
The federal government is submitting a bill to Parliament, which should prompt the National Council to adopt the proposal before the summer. This would bring Austria into line with UNICEF, which defines a child marriage as one in which at least one of the partners is under 18 years of age. Ministers claim that the change will also make it easier to control the already illegal practice of forced marriage.
Family Minister Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP) highlighted the role of the new law as a “crucial step” and—potentially more controversially—a way to prevent Sharia marriages that were arranged abroad (“common practice in some Muslim countries”).
Sporrer is also targeting cousin marriages, which, despite known health risks, remain popular in some communities in Austria. Worldwide, different national laws prohibit consanguineous unions to varying extents, with some states viewing them as incestuous.
Before the mooted Austrian ban, restrictions were also proposed in the British Parliament by Richard Holden MP, who noted that the children of first cousins were at greater risk of birth defects. His actions were branded ‘racist’ by some members of the sectarian ‘Gaza Independents’ bloc elected to Westminster last year.
