At What Age?...
...are school-children employed, married and taken to court?
Greece
Source: CRC/C/28/Add. 17 25 June 2001
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School-leaving age

296. […] Under the law referred to above (art. 10), Greek children may be enrolled in the first grade of primary school if on 31 December of the year of enrolment they have reached the age of six years. […]

297. Compulsory education lasts nine years, divided into two sections (primary school and junior secondary school), and may be completed if the pupil has reached the age of 16. Penalties are provided for by the law and the Civil Code for parents or guardians who infringe the relevant legislation

Minimum age of employment

1. (c) Minors who have reached the age of 16 may, with the general consent of the persons exercising custody over them, enter into contracts of work as employees. If the aforementioned consent is not given to them, the court may decide to grant it on the minor's petition (article 136 of the Civil Code)

396. The general minimum age limit for admission to employment is 15 years (article 2 of Law 1837/89). This provision is based on the consideration of allowing children to complete compulsory education, which ends at the age of 15, without distraction. An exemption to the limit of 15 years is employment in artistic and similar activities, on condition, however, that no harm is done to the physical and mental health or the morals of the minors. This exemption was enacted because it is widely accepted that artistic creativity among young people is an important cultural activity which the Greek State ought to encourage.

Minimum age for marriage

1. (d) Minors who have not reached the age of 18 may marry with the permission of the court (if such a marriage is imperative for some grave cause). The court allows the marriage after having heard the prospective married persons and those exercising custody over the minor (article 1350 of the Civil Code).

Minimum age for criminal responsibility

1. (e) In criminal law, minors are considered to be persons who are between the ages of 7 and 17 years, inclusive. Of these persons, minors under the age of 12 are called children and the remainder are called adolescents.

2. Delinquent minors are subject to reformatory or therapeutic measures or to criminal correction (article 121 of the Criminal Code). Children are not held responsible for the criminal acts committed by them, and only reformatory or therapeutical measures may be taken against them. Adolescents who commit criminal acts are subject to reformatory or therapeutic measures if there is no case for them to be subjected to criminal correction (article 126 of the Criminal Code).

370. One of the characteristic features of this approach is that minor offenders are absolutely free of responsibility for their acts until they reach the age of 12, and hold only relative responsibility until the age of 17.