Displaced adolescent girls’ protection: could casuistry be a methodology for humanitarians?

This paper analyses the practice of marrying displaced adolescent girls and critically explores the application of casuistry to this protection issue. It illustrates how the dominant conceptualization of early marriages has failed to embed ethical and livelihoods dimensions. When considered alongside the lack of agency of displaced adolescent girls, the gaps in this conceptualization have contributed to inefficient protection interventions. This paper demonstrates how group casuistry may address such gaps by emphasizing the values of stakeholders as well as the circumstances in which early marriages occur. This methodology allows displaced adolescent girls to exert more influence in decision-making. Finally, this paper discusses how group casuistry might facilitate various linkages and contribute to, for instance, connecting universality and contextuality in interventions.