Women, children 'need better citizenship law'
Women, children 'need better citizenship law'
JAKARTA (JP): Citizenship laws must become more gender-
oriented and institutionally controlled to empower women to
control their citizenships and their children's, observers said
yesterday.
In a seminar on citizenship laws affecting women, East Java
legislative council executive Ida Sampit Karo-Karo said that
these measures would be recommended to help women determine their
rights to citizenship.
The seminar reviewed the United Nations Convention on Women'
Rights that Indonesia ratified 13 years ago.
Under Indonesia's 1958 Marriage Law, a wife's legal status and
her child's right to citizenship in a mixed marriage are
recognized under the foreign husband's citizenship.
Ida said this law left little legal recourse for the woman and
child regarding immigration, taxation and citizenship.
She cited as an example the citizenship of the five-year-old
boy, Andreya Masaru Miyakoshi, the child of a mixed marriage
between Indonesian woman Atik Kristia Yuliani and her Japanese
husband, Mitsuo Miyakoshi. The couple were married in Surabaya,
East Java.
The couple divorced on Feb. 22, 1996. The Surabaya District
Court said the child would be in the mother's custody until
Andreya could decide independently who to live with. The court
ordered the father to pay Rp 250,000 (US$95) monthly in child
alimony.
He has not paid alimony or prepared Andreya's Indonesian
residency permit.
Ida said that Andreya, whose residency permit had expired,
faced deportation due to his father's Japanese citizenship.
Ida said the 1958 Marriage Law did not comply with equality of
basic rights for men and women under the 1945 Constitution as the
outdated law favored men.
Deputy minister to the State Minister of Women's Roles, Wiek
Wibadswo, said the 40-year-old citizenship law needed revision to
meet the current demands.
Wiek said the 1945 Constitution and enforcement of Law No.7
1984 gave a woman the right to secure, change and maintain her
citizenship as well as her child's.
A woman's ability to determine her citizenship affected her
property and inheritance rights, he said.
He said the 1984 law covered 11 laws on marriage, workers'
rights, education, health, family welfare and the Criminal Code
on violence against women including rape and sexual harassment.
Wiek said after his presentation that his ministry had
assessed nine laws on marriage, health, population development
and workers' rights.
Laws on citizenship for women and refinement of Articles 281
to 295 of the Criminal Code were under further assessment, he
said, adding that the articles covered sexual violence and
harassment against women.
Director of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice,
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, said that Indonesia would discuss its
report on the convention's implementation in January 1998 in New
York, the United States.
Nursyahbani said that the report would be discussed at a
meeting with the UN Committee on Eradication of Discrimination
against Women to help the government.
She said that a report on citizenship laws affecting children
from mixed marriages had not been included. A woman's right to
care for her child did not match the 1958 law for mixed
marriages, she said.
She maintained that dual citizenship in mixed marriages would
not apply in Indonesia. (01)