International Law and Forced Marriage: Analysing Nigeria’s Obligations Under CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol

This study empirically analyses Nigeria's obligations regarding forced marriage under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, focusing on the prevalence of the practice in the North West and North Central geopolitical zones and the adequacy of legal responses. Forced marriage remains widespread in northern Nigerian states, often intersecting with child marriage and practised under customary and religious law frameworks that the federal government has been reluctant to override. Using a mixed-methods approach combining treaty analysis with review of UNICEF, UNFPA, and Girls Not Brides datasets, and a systematic analysis of domestic court decisions on marriage age and consent, the research maps the gap between Nigeria's international legal commitments and domestic legal practice. It examines the CEDAW Committee's concluding observations on Nigeria and the Maputo Protocol's specific requirements on eliminating forced marriage, assessing compliance under both instruments. The study fills a gap in the comparative literature by analysing forced marriage as both an international human rights violation and a domestic family law problem in the Nigerian federal context, where state-level family law varies substantially. Findings indicate that the absence of a uniform federal minimum marriage age and weak enforcement of existing prohibitions constitute a systemic breach of Nigeria's CEDAW and Maputo Protocol obligations. An original compliance scorecard for Nigeria's forced marriage obligations is developed. Recommendations include federal legislation setting a minimum marriage age and strengthened enforcement mechanisms. Keywords: forced marriage, CEDAW, Maputo Protocol, North West Nigeria, women's rights.