Beyond Family Law: Reconstructing Family Justice through Women’s and Children’s Rights

Emi Puasa Handayani, Zainal Arifin, Zico Junius Fernando, Zaid Bin Mohamad, Naufal Ghani Bayhaqi

Abstract


This article analyses the nexus between Indonesian family law and the legal protection of women and children within a human rights framework. Although family law regulates marriage, divorce, spousal relations, parental authority, custody, and maintenance, its implementation is often affected by patriarchal norms, regulatory disharmony, and weak protection mechanisms for vulnerable family members. This study employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, and case approaches. The statutory analysis examines the Marriage Law, Child Protection Law, Domestic Violence Law, Sexual Violence Crimes Law, and the Compilation of Islamic Law, while the case approach studies the Constitutional Court Decision No. 22/PUU-XV/2017 on the minimum marriage age and Religious Court practice concerning marriage dispensation, post-divorce custody or hadhanah, and domestic violence in marital relations. The article argues that women’s and children’s protection law functions beyond merely as a complementary regime; it serves as a corrective framework for family law when private family relations lead to discrimination, violence, unsafe custody, or child vulnerability. The findings show that Indonesian family law reform should be directed toward regulatory harmonisation, gender-responsive reconstruction of family norms, stricter judicial control over marriage dispensation, child-centred custody standards based on the best interests of the child, and integrated protection mechanisms for victims of domestic and sexual violence. This article contributes to the development of a human rights-based model of family law reform that aligns gender equality, child protection, Religious Court practice, and the protection of vulnerable groups in family justice.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18860/j-fsh.v18i2.38190

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