STAND. COM. REP. NO. 724

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 279

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 279, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MARRIAGE OF MINORS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that in the event that one of the respective parties to a marriage contract is a minor and the other party is more than five years older than the minor, the Child Protective Services Unit of the Department of Human Services shall investigate and report to the family court of the circuit in which the minor resides before the marriage is approved.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Unchained at Last and three individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Tahirih Justice Center.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii's marriage laws currently permit minors to marry with parental or parental and judicial consent and is one of the remaining twenty-five states that has not passed any marriage age reforms.  Between 2000 and 2010, over six hundred children were married in the State.  This measure's preservation of Hawaii's current minimum age of fifteen years old keeps the State as one of five nationwide that sets a statutory age floor below sixteen.  Additionally, your Committee finds that child marriage can severely limit opportunities and poses risks to health, education, and economic freedom as minors often lack the rights and resources of adults, making them more vulnerable to coercion, predation, and risk of experiencing violence.  Minors may be forced to stay in marriage because they cannot easily leave home, enter a domestic violence shelter, retain an attorney, or bring legal action, including seeking a legal protection order.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of May 6, 2137, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 279, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 279, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair