What Is Forced Marriage – Towards a Definition of Forced Marriage as a Crime against Humanity

The Special Court for Sierra Leone’s Trial and Appeals Chambers handed down judgments considering, for the first time, forced marriage as a crime against humanity. This article critiques those decisions against the Appeals Chamber’s stated aim of “enriching the jurisprudence of international criminal law.” The author argues that there is a need to recognise a crime of forced marriage, but in order to enrich current jurisprudence, it should be limited to only conferral of the status of marriage and the ongoing effects of that status on the victim.