Women in mixed marriages have little legal protection
Women in mixed marriages have little legal protection
Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
An Indonesian woman married to an American man decided to tell
officials her daughter was born out of wedlock to ensure the baby
would receive Indonesian citizenship.
"My husband has his heart set on Indonesian citizenship but he
has been unable to acquire it. We want our daughter to grow up in
Indonesia with Indonesian citizenship," she told The Jakarta Post
on Monday.
The couple married in the United States in 1995. "Our marriage
was never registered here," she said.
Law No. 68/1958 on citizenship follows the principle of ius
sanguinis (bloodline) in determining the nationality of children.
However, the law fails to protect mixed couples and their
children, particularly Indonesian women who marry foreigners.
Under the law, any child of a mixed marriage automatically
assumes the same citizenship as his or her father.
These children only receive Indonesian citizenship at birth if
the mother does not have a legally established relationship with
the father or if the father is stateless.
"In 1984, Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention on
the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. It
was legalized under Law No. 7/1984," a mixed marriage legal
expert, Zulfa Basuki, told the Post.
"Article 9 says the state shall grant women equal rights as
men with respect to the nationality of their children," she said.
Zulfa said the law should give Indonesian women the right to
determine the nationality of their children.
"Forcing women to declare their children were born out of
wedlock only victimizes the children later in life," said the
lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Law.
Declaring a child to have been born out of wedlock means the
expatriate father has no legal obligation toward the child, and
the child is unable legally to inherit anything from their
father.
Zulfa also said that under Law No. 9/1992, a woman can be
arrested if her expatriate husband or their children overstay
their resident visas (KITAS/KITAP).
"It is ridiculous that a wife or a mother could be put in
prison for that," she said.
The immigration law states that an Indonesian husband can
sponsor his foreign wife's resident visa. However, this is not
true for Indonesian wives.
An Indonesian wife can only sponsor her children's resident
visas or a social visa that would allow her husband to stay in
Indonesia for a maximum of two months at a time.
A foreign husband of an Indonesian woman can enter Indonesia
on a tourist or social visa and try to find a job here to become
their sponsoring organization.
A KITAS is valid for one year and costs about Rp 1 million
(US$110), while KITAP is a five-year resident visa that costs
about Rp 2 million. It takes about six weeks to get either a
KITAS or a KITAP.