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Indonesia plans to amend law on underage marriages

Xinhua, October 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Indonesian government has planned to issue a Peperpu (regulation in lieu of law) on underage marriages in a bid to reduce sexual offense cases against women and children, a minister said here on Wednesday.

Women Empowerment and Children Protection Minister Yohana Yembise said that the process to draft the amendment on Indonesia's 1974 marriage law that allows 16-year-old girls to wed, was underway at present. The minister said that rate of underage marriages was high in several parts of the country.

"The issuance of the Peperpu was urgent to support our efforts in preventing underage marriages and to protect young girls from violence," the minister said.

Citing an example, the minister said that results of a research conducted by British group Coram Children's Legal Centre (CCLC) in Indonesia's West Java city of Bogor showed that in 2015, 38 percent of women there were married before they turned 18.

Another data jointly issued by Indonesia's Central Statistics agency (BPS) and the UNESCO in 2015 showed that 23 percent of Indonesian girls under 18 years old have already married. The average number of underage marriage couples stood at 340,000 per year.

The minister added that planned issuance of the Peperpu was related to the recently-enacted law on castration and death penalty against child sex crime convicts.

According to the minister, underage marriage pose higher risk for the females as it may lead to damage on their reproduction organs, domestic violence, low education and psychological issue.

Indonesia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC) that requires countries to abolish marriages of youngsters before 18 years old under health concerns. Enditem