The Best Interest of the Child within the Marriage Dispensation Regulation in Indonesia

10.2478/bjlp-2022-002054

Abstract

The phenomenon of the child marriage is a crucial issue and has attracted public attention, especially among human rights activists in Indonesia. Although marriage dispensation has been regulated in Indonesia, the number of child marriages cases are still quite high. The purpose of this study is to explain the regulation of marriage age limit in the Indonesian law system. This study uses a historical-normative method. The sources and collection of the data refer to regulatory documents, literatures, and other resources that related to the research objective. The result of this study shows that there are several factors that influenced the child marriage cases in Indonesia, such as pregnancy outside of marriage, economy, education, customs, and religion. Moreover, the regulations of marriage dispensation in Indonesia are needed to be synchronized and harmonious with the other related regulations both are substantially and practically. In the other words, the implementation of marriage age limit regulations on the marriage dispensation lawsuit in Indonesia have to consider and return to the principle of the best interest of the child.