Professor Javaid Rehman addresses IBA webinar over international legal obligations to end child marriage
2 April 2026
Garden Court North’s Professor Javaid Rehman (pictured) addressed the International Bar Association’s webinar on child marriage. Credit: United Nations.
Garden Court North’s Professor Javaid Rehman has addressed a webinar presented by the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Human Rights Institute, which examined the global prevalence, drivers and consequences of child marriage, with a particular focus on its legal, human rights and gender equality implications.
Child marriage, widely regarded as forced marriage, remains widespread despite international commitments to end the practice.
During the IBA’s webinar, moderated by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, Javaid drew on his expertise in Islamic and Pakistani family law, Muslim constitutionalism, and his years as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran. Javaid’s segment begins at 28:42.
“Child marriages unfortunately remain one of the most consequentially painful yet neglected aspects of international human rights law and state practices”, Javaid said. “International law has witnessed limited progress from the time of the International Bill of Human Rights, which collectively represents the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, and the two international covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (both adopted in 1966). All of these instruments, while promoting free and full consent, and full age within marriage, do not address the issue of child marriage.”
Javaid proceeds to outline the increased recognition of child marriages as forced marriages in international law, and “condemned as forms of modern slavery”. However, he points to the legal complications in state practice, and therefore that the “abhorrent practice of child marriages and forced marriages remains horrendously alive and kicking”.
The webinar, available below, was supported by the IBA Women Lawyers’ Committee, IBA Human Rights Law Committee, the IBA Criminal Law Committee and the Diversity and Equality Law Committee.
Javaid and Helena Kennedy KC spoke alongside Siobhan Warrington and Rachael Hongo (Girls Not Brides), Sheema Sen Gupta (UNICEF), Mikiko Otani (Child Rights Connect), and Payzee Mahmod (Iranian & Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation).
Professor Javaid Rehman speaks to The Tablet
Javaid has also spoken to the media about the issue of child marriage this week, following a decision by a Pakistani court on a marriage involving a Christian girl whose family alleged abduction, forced conversion and underage marriage.
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the marriage of Maria Shahbaz was lawful after deciding that the girl was an adult who consented to the marriage. This judgment was handed down notwithstanding Maria’s father presenting as evidence her daughter’s official birth certificate confirming her age as a minor at the time of the marriage.
Speaking to The Tablet for an article published on Tuesday (31 March 2026) in his capacity as Senior Legal Adviser for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Pakistani Minorities, Javaid expressed “serious and grave concerns” at the implications of this decision for religious minorities and for child marriages.
He warned that the decision risks undoing the legislation by Pakistan’s provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab, and the Islamabad Capital Territory that mandates the minimum age of marriage as 18.
Javaid became a member of the Punjab Bar in 1993, and is a Professor of Law at Brunel University, with more than 30 years of experience as an academic lawyer. He is currently undertaking his pupillage at Garden Court North.
Additional media
International Bar Association – Ending child marriage: legal obligations and global responses
The Tablet – UK parliamentarians call for stronger protection for Pakistan’s religious minorities following court ruling
Eurasia Review – Christians In Pakistan React To Court Verdict On Marriage Of Christian Girl To Muslim Man
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
