Child Brides: A Case Study
By Sofia Djojonegoro
According to UNICEF, Indonesia has the eighth highest number of child brides in the world; approximately 1,459,000. That is 14% of the girls in Indonesia getting married before they turn 18. The biggest problem areas are West Sulawesi, South Kalimantan, Central Java, and East Java (SUSENAS).
These child marriages are often caused by poverty, social norms, or custom and religious laws. Some families partake in child marriage to relieve themselves from having to take care of a female child and weak marriage laws allow this to happen. The 1974 Marriage laws allow girls to marry at 16 and boys at 19 if they have parental permission. However, parents could ask local or religious courts to legalize the marriage of girls with no minimum age.
Oftentimes, child marriage is a glorified form of slavery; girls are often forced to engage in domestic chores or sexual acts, refused an education, are controlled by abuse, and are forced to stay in a toxic marriage. These girls aren’t safe in these forced marriages, and their basic human rights and their childhoods are taken away from them through these degrading acts.
What UDHR articles are at issue?
The child brides of Indonesia are victims of many violations of human rights, but the violations occurring with Article 16 b, Article 4, and Article 26.
Article 16 subsection b states that “marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.” The large majority of child brides are forced into their marriages. Often, their families or child traffickers will threaten them into marrying someone they’ve probably never met before.
Article 4 states that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” Child marriage can lead to slavery, especially when they’re being forced into non-consensual acts. Often times, the child brides are forced to stay in these marriages with no way out and have to do domestic work for their husbands with no pay.
Article 26 states that “everyone has the right to education.” For many child brides, they are not able to complete their education because they are forced to drop out of school in order to fulfill their duties as a wife.
The child brides of Indonesia have fallen prey to numerous appalling human rights violations.
To what extent can human rights be ensured?
The cultural and religious context in Indonesia makes it difficult for human rights, particularly the ones about marriage, to be ensured. In most rural areas, child marriage is culturally normal, and it is expected for a girl to be married before she turns 18. It’s been embedded into the culture of these individuals, and people are groomed into believing that this is acceptable. The growing religious conservatism in Indonesia pressure parents to avoid adultery, “parents seek permission to marry their daughters before the legal age because they worry their children will commit adultery, especially when their children are in relationships.” (Irdiana) Restricting the age children are allowed to get married at increases the risk of adultery, which goes against the beliefs of conservative Muslims. Because this represents the growing majority of the Indonesian population, ensuring the rights of child brides might go against the right of freedom of religion and belief for specific persons.
The Indonesian government has tried to amend the situation by passing a recent law that brings up the minimum age of marriage of girls to 19, fixing the current law that states girls can marry at 16. The changes to this law aren’t going to fix the issue, as conflicts within the law pose a threat to sovereignty, “The mechanism of marriage dispensation, as stipulated in the 1974 Marriage Law, allows exceptions to the minimum age subject to consent from an appropriate authority, such as judges from the Religious Court (for Muslims) or District Court (for non-Muslims)” (UNICEF Indonesia). To end this conflict of sovereignty, the practice of marriage dispensation must be eliminated.
To help prevent child marriage, the government needs to focus on more specific root causes; education and poverty. For every 10 children that drop out during secondary school, seven of them are girls (UNICEF). This makes them more vulnerable, as they have fewer opportunities because of their lack of education and are more susceptible to child marriage. Poverty is also a large factor, as poor families view child marriage as a solution. Some families consider it as a way to lift a burden off of their shoulders while getting a sum of money from the family they’re marrying the girl off to.
Although the governmental and cultural conflict makes it difficult, Indonesia needs to consider child marriage as a serious issue, and improve it by addressing the root causes to ensure fair human rights for everybody.
