At What Age?...
...are school-children employed, married and taken to court?
Slovakia
Source: CRC/C/11/Add. 17 Date: 17 August 1998
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School-leaving age

14. The compulsory primary education of a child commences at the beginning of the school year that comes after the date on which the child has attained the age of 6 and lasts 10 years. If, despite having attained the age of 6, the physical or mental capability of a child is inadequate, or should the child's legal representative, physician or director of a pre-school facility require so, the relevant authority of the State may postpone the commencement of primary education of such child by one school year. […]

Minimum age of employment

11. Labour legislation uses the term "juvenile". In the eyes of this particular branch of law, being a juvenile does not depend on whether a person is a minor from the civil law perspective. According to the Labour Code (Act No. 65/1965, as subsequently amended), juvenile workers are workers under the age of 18, who can only work under special conditions regulated by the Code.

14. … Albeit children have legal capacity for admission to employment from the age of 15, no child may be admitted to employment prior to the date of completing his/her (primary) compulsory education. If a person completes his/her compulsory education at a school for handicapped children below the age of 15, he/she acquires legal capacity for admission to employment upon completion of compulsory education but in no case earlier than at the age of 14 (sect. 11 of the Labour Code).

Minimum age for marriage

9. Pursuant to section 13 of the Family Act (No. 94/1963 Coll., amended by Act No. 132/1982 Coll. and Act No. 234/1992 Coll.), "A minor may not enter into marriage. In exceptional cases, if it is in compliance with the social purpose of the wedlock and the reasons are material, the court may allow a minor who has attained the age of 16 to enter into marriage." The judicial practice views the pregnancy of the intending spouse as a material reason. Without the permission of the court, the marriage is void and the courts shall proclaim it void even without being petitioned to do so (sect. 13, para. 1 of the Family Act). Paragraph 2 of the same Act stipulates that "no court shall render the marriage void and the marriage shall become legal if the husband, who entered into the marriage as a minor, has attained the age of 18 or the wife has become pregnant". A marriage entered into by a minor below the age of 16 will legally never come into being.

Minimum age for criminal responsibility

12. […] According to section 11 of the Penal Code, the penal liability of a child is stipulated negatively: "Whoever has not attained the age of 15 at the time of committing an offence shall not be criminally liable". Section 74, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code defines a "juvenile" as a "person who, at the time of committing an offence, has attained the age of 15 and is under the age of 18". […]