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National law and policies on minimum ages – Indonesia

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Source: 2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.23, 7 July 2003
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
50. In general, definition of the child in national legislation follows the standard set forth in the Child Welfare Act (1979); that is, a person under the age of 18. Definition of the child is also set forth in several other pieces of national legislation, as follows: Universal education: no age-limit is determined, but universal education applies to the nine years of elementary education (National Act on Education System, 1989) […]
318. […] the concept of compulsory elementary education currently in effect in Indonesia is not identical to compulsory education as implemented in developed countries. The compulsory elementary education programme in Indonesia is more closely equated with universal education, that is opening up learning opportunities by encouraging parents to send their children to school once they reach school age.
319. In this sense, the concept of universal education in Indonesia was introduced prior to 1994, and is effective for the six years of elementary education. Education, however, is not free.
328. On measures taken to make elementary education compulsory and free of charge for all children, the following can be reported.
329. Since 1994, via Presidential Instruction No. 1 of 1994, universal education has been extended from six years of elementary education to nine years, including elementary school and junior secondary school. The minimum age of entry to elementary school is 6 years.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
50. […] Definition of the child is also set forth in several other pieces of national legislation, as follows: […] Admission to employment: 15 years; admission to employment in hazardous work: 18 years (Employment Act, 1995);
545. From a legislative perspective, in an effort to consolidate several existing laws aimed at protecting the child from economic exploitation and performing any work that is likely to be hazardous to or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, moral or social development, the Government and the House of Representatives passed Act No. 25/1997 concerning Employment, under which companies are prohibited from employing children under the age of 15 (art. 95, para. 1), or they will be subject to a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of Rp 200 million (art. 178, paras (a) and (b)). Unfortunately, however, this Act contains two flaws, in articles 95, paragraph 2, and article 96, which provide exceptions that in practice nullify this protection. Because of these deficiencies, and for other reasons regarding the issue of employment, implementation of this Act was postponed (pursuant to Act No. 11/1998). Act No. 25/1997 is currently under review in order to rectify several deficiencies. Following an agreement of the Tripartite Plus Meeting in 1998, a Bill on Employee Protection and Guidance has been submitted to the Secretary of State.
546. Since Act No. 25/1997 is not in force, it is necessary to turn to Circular Letter of the Minister of Manpower No. SE-12/M/BW/1997 on Guidelines for the Management of Child Workers. The purpose of this Circular Letter is to provide guidelines for supervisors of child workers between the ages of 13 and 18. This quite detailed Circular Letter mentions 25 industries in which children are not allowed to work and establishes strict working hours (4 hours a day, 2 working hours with a 15-minute break plus 2 working hours), and work hours (children may not work overtime between 18.00 and 06.00). […]
 
Minimum age for marriage
50. […] Definition of the child is also set forth in several other pieces of national legislation, as follows: […] Marriage: 16 years for women and 19 years for men, in both cases with the legal consent of the parents, up to the age of 21 (Marriage Act, 1974) […]
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
50. In general, definition of the child in national legislation follows the standard set forth in the Child Welfare Act (1979); that is, a person under the age of 18. Definition of the child is also set forth in several other pieces of national legislation, as follows: […] Criminal responsibility: 8 years (Juvenile Court Act, 1997) […]
460. […] One weakness is that the Criminal Code does not establish the age of criminal responsibility for more serious crimes.
472. In addition, with the coming into force of the Juvenile Court Act, the concept of statutory crime is applied in a more general sense for all crimes perpetrated by children, although this act comes under much criticism for setting the age of criminal responsibility too low at eight years. A child under the age of 8 is free from all criminal responsibility (art. 5, paras. 1-3). Under this act a child is defined as a person under the age of 18 years who has never been married. However, procedure for court hearings involving children is applicable for persons up to the age of 21 (art. 4, paras. 1 and 2).
 
Source: 2nd periodic report: CRC/C/65/Add.23, 7 July 2003