STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 325
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 729
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 729 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MARRIAGE OF MINORS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The
purpose of this measure is to end
child marriage in Hawaii by:
(1) Raising the minimum age for marriage from sixteen to eighteen;
(2) Repealing the authority of parents and the Family Court to consent to a minor's marriage; and
(3) Repealing spousal cohabitation after the parties attain legal age as an exception for an annulment based on nonage.
Your Committee finds
that there is growing national and international recognition that child
marriage is a human rights violation. A
child entering into a marriage has not reached the threshold of adulthood that
grants certain rights and responsibilities and may have been pressured or
coerced into marrying, especially if the marriage is because the child is
pregnant or the result of sex trafficking.
Girls are disproportionately affected by the practice of a child marriage,
with the vast majority of marriages occurring between a minor female and an
adult male. In Hawaii, of the
approximately eight hundred child marriages that have taken place in the State
since 2000, eighty percent of these marriages were minor females marrying adult
men. Your Committee further finds that
as of 2018, thirteen states and two territories have banned child marriage in
their jurisdictions. Your Committee
believes that ending child marriage in Hawaii will protect vulnerable minors
from being coerced into marriages they do not want and cannot fully consent to.
Your
Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Repealing language in the Uniform Guardianship
and Protective Proceedings Act that empowered a guardian of a minor to consent
to the marriage of the minor;
(2) Amending the Penal Code to remove exceptions
to sexual assault offenses if the person who committed the offense was legally
married to the minor;
(3) Inserting a savings clause;
(4) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000,
to encourage further discussion; and
(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments
for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 729, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 729, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |
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