Azerbaijan has expanded the definition of early marriage used in public-awareness rules to include an unregistered family union involving a child.
The Cabinet of Ministers amended regulations governing educational work on the consequences of early and consanguineous marriages, according to Vesti Baku.
Under the revised wording, the concept now covers a union created with a child for the purpose of forming a family even when the marriage has not been legally registered.
The change closes a formal gap in the terminology used for prevention and public education, allowing unregistered cohabitation involving a child to be addressed in the same awareness framework as a registered early marriage.
The published amendment concerns the definitions used in those awareness rules. It does not itself create a new criminal penalty or change Azerbaijan’s legal marriage age.