CEDAW/C/GC/31-CRC/C/GC/18 marriages (coercing a widow to marry a relative of her deceased husband). In some contexts, a forced marriage may occur when a rapist is permitted to escape criminal sanctions by marrying the victim, usually with the consent of her family. Forced marriages may occur in the context of migration in order to ensure that a girl marries within the family’s community of origin or to provide extended family members or others with documents to migrate to and/or live in a particular destination country. Forced marriages are also increasingly being used by armed groups during conflict or may be a means for a girl to escape post-conflict poverty. 10 Forced marriage may also be defined as a marriage in which one of the parties is not permitted to end or leave it. Forced marriages often result in girls lacking personal and economic autonomy and attempting to flee or commit selfimmolation or suicide to avoid or escape the marriage. 24. The payment of dowries and bride prices, which varies among practising communities, may increase the vulnerability of women and girls to violence and to other harmful practices. The husband or his family members may engage in acts of physical or psychological violence, including murder, burning and acid attacks, for failure to fulfil expectations regarding the payment of a dowry or its size. In some cases, families will agree to the temporary “marriage” of their daughter in exchange for financial gains, also referred to as a contractual marriage, which is a form of trafficking in human beings. States parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography have explicit obligations with regard to child and/or forced marriages that include dowry payments or bride prices because they could constitute a sale of children as defined in article 2 (a) of the Protocol. 11 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has repeatedly stressed that allowing marriage to be arranged by such payment or preferment violates the right to freely choose a spouse and has in its general recommendation No. 29 outlined that such practice should not be required for a marriage to be valid and that such agreements should not be recognized by a State party as enforceable. C. Polygamy 25. Polygamy is contrary to the dignity of women and girls and infringes on their human rights and freedoms, including equality and protection within the family. Polygamy varies across, and within, legal and social contexts and its impact includes harm to the health of wives, understood as physical, mental and social well-being, the material harm and deprivation that wives are liable to suffer and emotional and material harm to children, often with serious consequences for their welfare. 26. While many States parties have chosen to ban polygamy, it continues to be practised in some countries, whether legally or illegally. Although throughout history polygamous family systems have been functional in some agricultural societies as a way of ensuring larger labour forces for individual families, studies have shown that polygamy actually often results in increased poverty in the family, especially in rural areas. __________________ 10 11 8/24 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women general recommendation No. 30, para. 62. See also art. 3 (1)(a)(i). 14-64765