CHILD MARRIAGE CONDITIONALITY AND ITS DISPENSATION IN MAHKAMAH SYAR’IYAH ACEH (S002522)

Under article 7(1) of the Law Number 16 Year 2019 Concerning on the the Amendment of Law Number 1 Year 1974 Concerning Marriage Law, the minimum age requirement of men and women before marriage are similar which is 19 years old. However, article 7(2) of the Marriage Law stated that: “In the event of deviation from the age requirement as referred to in paragraph (1), the parents of the male and/or the parents of the female party can request dispensation to the Court on very urgent grounds accompanied by sufficient supporting evidence”, which gives the chance for the underage couple to be married as long as they have permission from their parents and request dispensation to the court.

This research aims to explain the policy regarding the conditionality and its dispensation of child marriage and to find out the effectiveness of Indonesia Marriage Law as well as the implementation of child marriage conditionality in Aceh by analyzing Mahkamah Syar’iyah decisions.

This research uses normative empirical legal research which mostly discusses on the Law Number 16 Year 2019 Concerning the Amendment of Law Number 1 Year 1974 Concerning Marriage Law, and focuses on the norms regarding the conditionality and its dispensation of child marriage that is regulated under the Marriage Law and the implementation in Aceh.

The results showed that the implementation of Indonesia’s Marriage Law to combat child marriage is still considered ineffective since the child marriage prevalence number which has been legalized by Mahkamah Syar’iyah grew higher in Aceh by 2017-2020. That condition obviously contradicts to the objective of Aceh Government and their obligation as stipulated in the explanation of the Marriage Law which required the government to socialize and guide the community to prevent child marriage.

Therefore, this research suggests to affirm the implementation of government obligation to prevent child marriage. In addition, it also suggests the government to fulfill the rights of children by cooperating with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), parents, and other relevant stakeholders to provide assistance, particularly to the victims of child marriage.