Between Human Rights and Justice Principle in Children’s Civil Rights

Wurianalya Maria Novenanty

doi:10.26593/mel.v32i2.2675.132-147

Abstract

Children’s rights are fundamental in a country. Children are the future generation of a country. They have rights in civil law field. The examples of such rights are the right to have family name, the right to get alimony, and the right to get inheritance from the parents. Indonesian Law Number 1 of 1974 regarding Marriage (Marriage Law) distinguishes the civil rights of legitimate and illegitimate children. In 2010, the Indonesian Constitutional Court produced a decision which became a controversial decision because it was deemed to ‘legalize’ illegitimate child to have the same rights as legitimate child. The reason behind such decision is the human rights which should apply nondiscriminative principle. Some parties disagree with the reasoning behind this decision. They consider the decision unjust and that it violates social and religious norms in giving illegitimate and legitimate children the same rights in spite of the status difference. The author will discuss children’s civil rights based on civil law, human rights, and justice principle in Indonesia.

Highlights

There has been a saying “a child is a gift from God”
The paragraph must be read: “A child who is born out of a wedlock has a civil relationship with his/her mother and the mother’s family and with the man who is his/her father, who can be proved based on science and technology and/or other proofs according to the law, has a blood relationship, including civil relationship with his/her father’s family.”[10]
It is quite a paradox that after the Constitutional Court Decision dated February 17, 2012, determining that a child who is born out of a wedlock has a civil relationship with the man who is his/her father, to the extent that the said child can be proved based on science and technology and/or other proofs according to the law and has a blood relationship with the man, while the regulator amended the Citizenship Administration Law in 2013, which regulates that even in the child recognition, the parents shall get married according to the religion law

Summary

Introduction

There has been a saying “a child is a gift from God”. That is why parents must take good care of their children because God entrusts them to the parents.

Results

Conclusion