At the heart of the controversy were changes to marriage laws, including articles that set the legal minimum age for marriage at 18, recognize only civil marriages, allow joint property ownership, expand parental rights, and extend inheritance rights to girls.

VOA: standard.2009.08.27

According to La Repubblica, a newspaper, the prosecutors have a statement in which she claims she told the 74-year-old Mr Berlusconi she was under the age of 18, the legal minimum age for prostitution in Italy.

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The 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) set the legal minimum age for military recruitment at 15.

BBC: UN wants child soldiers demobilised

As a result, nine-tenths of companies with more than 30 employees today set a mandatory retirement age, usually 60, the legal minimum.

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