KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) today launched the Malay-language version of the United Nations’ International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef)’s advocacy brief, Towards Ending Child Marriage in Malaysia.
According to Unicef’s website, the advocacy brief “outlines recommendations for the way forward in nine key areas”.
“It draws from and builds on previous work undertaken by Unicef Malaysia, together with the government of Malaysia and civil society organisations working on the issue of child marriage and adolescent pregnancy in Malaysia.”
Speaking at the Human Rights Day 2022 Forum today, Unicef Malaysia’s child protection chief Saskia Blume said based on data provided by the Statistics Department, an average of 1,500 children marry every year in the country.
Most of the child marriages, Blume said, were neither registered nor recorded, particularly involving Malaysia’s undocumented refugee population.
Present legislation, she said, is one of the factors contributing to child marriages in Malaysia due to the lack of a standard for the minimum age of marriage.
Other factors contributing to child marriages, said Blume, include poverty, as it is strongly linked to poor school attendance and dropping out of school early.
“According to the National Strategic Plan, to resolve this issue, we first have to raise the minimum age of marriage for (the purpose of protecting) all children in the country.
“Secondly, is to improve the availability of data about all children in Malaysia who are married.
“It is our responsibility to provide access to knowledge about sexual and reproductive health education that equips children to understand their bodies, respect others, and protect themselves,” she added.
She added that education plays a large preventive role in child marriage, and that the government thus must provide access to education for all children in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Suhakam Commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said while child marriages are not accepted by certain communities or nations, it has since evolved into a socially and culturally accepted norm from a socio-anthropological perspective, universally.
She said many countries also deny child marriage due to its impact on a child’s rights.
“Even though Malaysia has yet to reach the goal it has set for ending child marriage, we are proud that many governmental and non-governmental groups are working to end child marriage,” she said.
She added that the Office of the Children’s Commission (OCC) has been working towards ending child marriage as its top agenda since its establishment in 2019.
“We have conducted multiple programmes and initiated partnerships with governmental agencies and civil society organisations to better understand contextual issues surrounding child marriage among different ethnicities,” she said.
She also highlighted that in 2020, OCC appointed a member of the steering committee on the National Strategic Plan to address the issue of child marriage under the supervision of the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry.
The OCC, she said, along with the corporation of Sabah Suhakam and the Sabah Social Welfare Department, organised an awareness program in Kota Marudu.
“Shariah court judges must strictly comply with the shariah judiciary department when considering underage marriage applications.”
She added that Suhakam will continue to collaborate closely with international and national stakeholders such as Unicef in order to leverage each other’s knowledge and resources in resolving the issue of child marriage.
The advocacy brief is available here. – The Vibes, December 12, 2022
