MALAYSIA should do away with its standard operating procedures to approve child marriages and raise the minimum age to 18, said a United Nations special rapporteur today.

“It is within the government’s discretion,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio.

De Boer-Buquicchio, who spent eight days in Malaysia speaking to various authorities, civil society groups, and religious leaders, said the government should reach out to religious and customary right leaders to convince them about the negative implications concerning child marriages.

“By marrying them off early, you deprive them of rights to education, protection, etc.”  

She said that while poverty was one of the major factors for child marriages, the patriarchal structure in Malaysia continued the phenomenon.

“Girls are often treated as a commodity and so when the family is poor, they are married off early to help ease the financial situation. To counter this, there must be more discussions with religious authorities.

“I have found the religious authorities to be open-minded. But even if they are convinced, they say it will take time. On the UN side, we hope Malaysia can raise the minimum age immediately,” said de Boer-Buquicchio.

The special rapporteur said the government needs to ensure all children are properly documented.

“No children should be left without an identity. When they are not documented, they cannot gain access to education, health, and protection benefits offered by the state,” said de Boer-Buquicchio during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Children born to foreigners in Malaysia are not documented.

De Boer-Buquicchio, who visited a illegal migrant detention center in Kuala Lumpur, said that Malaysia also needed to improve its reporting system, as there were data inconsistencies about child marriages, undocumented children, and human trafficking.

“When I was given the data on human trafficking, it wasn’t segregated and there was no way to tell how many were children,” she said.

Another area Malaysia could improve is in ensuring better treatment of children born to illegal immigrants.

She said as of August, there were 46,620 children among the 161,140 refugees and asylum seekers in the detention centres.

De Boer-Buquicchio, who will present her findings to UN in March, praised Malaysia for the Sexual Offences Against Children Act and the setting up of two special courts for children. – October 1, 2018.