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Swiss law on underage marriage set to be tightened

Wedding ring
Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Switzerland is tightening its regulations on marriages of minors. Among other things, so-called summer holiday marriages will generally be invalid in future.

These refer to minors living in Switzerland who marry abroad during their holidays. 

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On Wednesday the House of Representatives resolved the last differences with the Senate on the bill.

The only controversial point between the two chambers was an exception. This concerns cases in which one of the spouses is still a minor at the time of the examination of a marriage.

The Senate and the government had argued that a marriage can be maintained in such cases if a judge deems it necessary to maintain the marriage in the interests of the person concerned and for their protection.

+ When children forced to marry stay married

The House of Representatives originally wanted to delete this exceptional provision, i.e. not allow any exceptions, but agreed with the Senate on Wednesday. The matter now goes to the final votes of both chambers.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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