Indonesia

16% of girls in Indonesia marry before the age of 18 and 2% marry before the age of 15.

5% of boys marry before the age of 18.

The prevalence of child marriage in Indonesia varies widely across regions, but it continues to be high in rural areas and the provinces of Bangka Belitung Islands (19%), West Kalimanthan (17%), West Sulawesi (17%), West Nusa Tenggara (17%) and Central Kalimantan (16%).

Statistics from 2020 indicate that for women aged 20-24 years who were first married or living together before the age of 18:

15% live in rural areas and 7% in urban areas

25% have no education or only pre-primary education, 34% have completed primary education and 3% have completed senior secondary education

16% live in the poorest quintile and 3% in the richest

UNICEF estimated that child marriage costs Indonesia 171,689,071 Indonesian rupiahs in 2014, which amounted to 1.7% of Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that girls are somehow inferior to boys.

In Indonesia, child marriage is also exacerbated by:

● Level of education: There is a general assumption that girls do not need to pursue higher education because they will eventually become housewives. Child marriage rates are lower for girls living in households where the head has completed senior secondary or higher education. A 2016 study shows that completing secondary school can protect girls from marrying early in Indonesia.

● Poverty: Girls living in households with low levels of expenditure and inadequate conditions are more likely to marry early. Families marry off girls as a way to lessen the economic burden of the family.

● Family honour: Studies have shown that marriage is sometimes used as a way to prevent or remedy the stigma associated with female sexual experience outside of marriage and adolescent pregnancy, including through sexual violence.

● Religion: Religion, especially Islam, has been cited as a factor influencing child marriage. A UNICEF study revealed that the Religious Courts were more likely to grant the marriage dispensation to allow child marriage than District Courts (for non-Muslims).

● Gender norms: Social norms which accept child marriage are influential at all socioeconomic levels in Indonesian society. In 2015, nearly one in eight girls who married before the age of 18 were from households with the highest levels of expenditure. A 2019 study revealed that child marriage has declined more among disadvantaged groups than wealthier groups. This indicates that financial security provides only limited protection against child marriage.

● Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C): About half of all Indonesian girls aged 11 and younger have undergone a form of FGM. While the link between child marriage and FGM remained underreported and under-researched, FGM is often used to control female sexuality and is regarded as a sign of readiness for marriage.

● Adolescent pregnancy: There is a general lack of understanding of sexual and reproductive health and the use of contraceptives. Adolescent girls who fall pregnant are pushed towards early marriage. Between 2015-2020, for girls between the ages of 15-19, the adolescent birth rate was 36 births per 1000 girls.

Indonesia has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since 2021.

During its 2021 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum, the government stated that there has been a decline in the rate of child marriage in Indonesia, from 12% in 2014 to 10% in 2020. The government noted that child marriage is prevalent in certain provinces, and in 2020, 21 out of 34 provinces had rates of child marriage that were higher than the national average.

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum, the government of Indonesia expressed its commitment to reduce the prevalence of child marriage through the amendment of the Marriage Law, especially concerning the minimum age of marriage, and the development of a national strategy for the prevention of child marriage in 2019.

During its Voluntary National Review at the 2017 High Level Political Forum, the government stated that the elimination of child marriage is important in reducing risks to a woman’s health, in protecting her human rights and in preventing maternal mortalities.

Indonesia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2021 review, the CEDAW Committee recommended that the government criminalize all forms of child trafficking, child sex tourism and child marriage. The Committee recommended that the government take measures to raise awareness on the harmful effects of child marriage, and to ensure that reported cases of child marriage are investigated effectively and that perpetrators are prosecuted.

In 2012, the CEDAW Committee recommended that the government undertake awareness-raising activities throughout the country on the negative effects of child marriage.

In 2014, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended Indonesia to amend its legislation to raise the marriage age for girls to 18 years.

During its 2022 Universal Periodic Review, the government has made significant progress in preventing child marriage. After the amendment to the Marriage Law 16/2019, the legal minimum age of marriage was raised to 19 for women, equal to men. The government has continued to address the drivers of child marriage by providing 12 years of free education, improving family welfare systems and increasing awareness on adolescent pregnancy.

During its 2017 Universal Periodic Review, Indonesia accepted recommendations to take all measures necessary to end child marriage.

Indonesia has committed to the ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Violence against Children (2013), which acknowledges the importance of strengthening ASEAN efforts to protect children from all forms of violence, including early marriage.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Indonesia committed to implement strategic policies and campaigns, to increase the national and sub-national budgets to end gender-based violence and harmful practices, and to revise the Marriage Law 1974, by increasing the age of first marriage to at least 19 years for both boys and girls.

Indonesia is a Pathfinder country for the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.

In February 2020, the National Strategy on the Prevention of Child Marriage (STRANAS PPA) was launched by the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas and the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, with the support of UNFPA, UNICEF, the Government of Canada and the Government of Australia.

The National Strategy (STRANAS PPA) is a reference document that contains various strategies for preventing child marriage. The five main strategic objectives are:

Optimization of children’s capacity

Environment enabling the prevention of child marriage

Accessibility and service expansion

Strengthening regulations and institutions

Strengthening stakeholder coordination

The National Mid-term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 also targets the reduction of child marriage. This national plan aims to contribute towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and reduce the rate of child marriage in Indonesia.

Indonesia has also reportedly set up several programmes to reduce child, early and forced marriage, through:

● Improving family welfare system and economic resilience.

● Awareness raising on the negative impact of child marriage and its health risks targeting children, religious leaders, communities and parents.

● Free education programmes, including a back-to-school program for prevention of early marriage and dropout children.

● Skills training for the youth.

The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection has also led the "Stop Child Marriage" Movement – a multi stakeholder collaborative action, with 11 government institutions and 65 women's and children's NGOs and media networks, that aims to coordinate policy and cultural changes, and legal protection and enforcement.

The National Strategy for the Elimination of Violence Against Children (2016-2020) highlights key priorities for ending child marriage, including:

● Conducting in-depth analysis into the risks and impacts of child marriage.

● Increasing girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health services and life skills training in areas with high child marriage rates.

● Developing behaviour change strategies to eliminate child marriage and shift social norms.

● Strengthening coordination and linkages between efforts to end gender-based violence and violence against children.

At local level, several policies to prevent and end child marriages have been developed, including village regulations in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, Bone-South Sulawesi Province, the Gresik Regent Circular Letter in East Java Province, Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta Province, and the NTB Governor Circular Letter.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs also developed a programme involving the majority of religious leaders so they will not officiate marriages for underage girls.

The revision of the Marriage Law 1974 has generated significant public debate in the last few years. In April 2018 President Jokowi committed to ending child marriage. He said two ministries, the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, were preparing a presidential decree to amend the 1974 Marriage Law. It was amended in September 2019 so that the age of marriage with parental consent for girls is the same as boys at 19 years.

As per the Marriage Law 1974,the age of marriage for both women and men without parental permission is 21. As amended in September 2019, girls and boys can marry with parental consent at 19 years.

Previously, the Marriage Law 1974 allowed girls to be married at 16 with parental permission. After a petition was rejected in 2015, such provision was finally declared unconstitutional on the grounds of gender-based discrimination on December 2018 (since the required minimum age for men to marry is 19) by the Indonesia's Constitutional Court. The review petition was filed by three child bride survivors and their lawyer from the Indonesian Coalition to End Child Marriage (Koalisi 18+).

The Court ordered lawmakers to revise the Marriage Law 1974 in regard to the minimum age for women to marry, within a maximum of three years.

However, it should be noted that parents can also ask religious courts or local officials to authorise marriages of girls even earlier, with no minimum age in such cases.