RIGHT TO MARRY AND FOUND A FAMILY THE RIGHT TO MARRY AND FOUND A FAMILY IN LAW Article 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both recognize the family as a “natural and fundamental group unit of society”. The same is the case for ACHPR Article 18, ACHR Article 17, ECHR Article 12, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 18. Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women sets out the obligation to “eliminate discrimination against women in all matters ­relating to marriage and family relations” and goes on to specify that this includes the rights to “enter into marriage”, to “freely … choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent” and to “decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their ­children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to e­ xercise these rights” as well as the same rights and responsibilities “during marriage and at its ­dissolution”, “as parents, irrespective of their marital status, in matters relating to their children” and “with regard to guardianship, stewardship, trusteeship and adoption of children”. Article 16 further guarantees the “same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose a family name, a profession and an occupation” and the “same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property”. Finally, the “betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an offi cial registry compulsory”. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, Articles 6 and 7, in slightly different terms guarantee the same rights for women as for men with respect to marriage. The right to equality regarding marriage is set out in Article 5 of the 7th Protocol to the ECHR. The right to found a family goes beyond the right to conceive, gestate and deliver a child; it involves the right of the couple to decide whether or not to have children, when to have them, and the space between them. 104 The right to marry and found a family can be limited by laws that are reasonably related to a family-based objective, such as laws requiring a minimum age for marrying. This minimum age should be the same for men and women in order to provide both with the same opportunities to education