KUALA LUMPUR: The Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (Asli) calls for necessary measures to support the call to end child marriages by amending relevant laws.
According to a statement from Asli yesterday, the federal government and state governments should also ensure domestic legal frameworks are ‘fully compatible’ with international and regional human rights standards.
“We welcome the decision by the Selangor, Penang, Sabah, Johor, Melaka and Perak state governments to amend their states’ Islamic laws in order to ban child marriages.
“We hope that the state governments of Sarawak, Pahang, Terengganu, Perlis, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah and Kelantan will soon be following suit,” it said.
ASLI said while there have been on-going efforts on the Federal government to amend relevant legislations, the issuance of the detailed guidelines for Syariah Court judges should be also expedited to approve the child marriages based on existing state Islamic laws.
Last Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that the government was preparing the draft of the National Strategic Plan to tackle under-age marriages.
The draft involves the amendment of the Islamic Family Law 1984 (Act 303) by fixing the marriage age of 18 for women. — Bernama