Make 18 the minimum age for marriage, says UN expert

KUALA LUMPUR: The minimum age for marriage in the country should be 18, without exceptions, suggests United Nations human rights expert Maud de Boer-Buquicchio.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children was on an eight-day visit in Malaysia to study the rights of children in the country and issues concerning the matter, including child marriage and abuse and sexual exploitation of children.

De Boer-Buquicchio said that the issue of child marriage in the country needed to be tackled soon, as child marriage continues to deprive children, especially girls, of their basic human rights.

“18 years and no less, no exceptions,” she said, adding that this was the requirement that falls under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Malaysia has ratified.

“I think it is time now to be firm on this and say this is how it has to be,” she said.

She said that child marriages also carried with it the risk ofabuse and exploitation of the child.

From 2013 to 2017, 5,362 applications for marriage with children aged under 16 were filed in syariah courts around the country, according to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

Data from the National Registration Department showed that 147 non-Muslim underage marriage applications were registered in Malaysia.

One of the root causes of child marriage in the country, she said, was the prevailing patriarchal attitude.

“Poverty (is one of the causes) – marrying off a child is cheaper, for example. But the root of it is still the patriarchal structures and attitudes prevailing in the country.

“Girls and women are used as a commodity irrespective of what they feel and what they want,” she added.

She said legal reforms and awareness-raising campaigns were needed to address the issue of child marriages.

She also said that another issue in the country was stateless children or children of refugees with no documentation being unable to access public facilities for education and health.

“Access to public education is an important issue and undocumented children are deprived of education, which is a serious problem,” she said.

The UNHCR estimated that as of August, 42,620 children were registered as refugees and asylum seekers in the country.

De Boer-Buquicchio will present her full report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next year (2019).