Indonesia is moving closer to ending child marriage after the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the current minimum age of 16 for girls to marry was against the Constitution and therefore should be raised to protect the rights of children.

The court issued the ruling after hearing a judicial review petition against Article 7 of the 1974 Marriage Law filed by three child bride survivors, Rasminah, 32, Endang Wasrinah, 35, and Maryanti, 30, who were forced to marry at a young age because of poverty and who claimed to have suffered as child brides.

The women argued that the current marriage age for girls was a form of gender-based discrimination as the minimum marriage age for men stipulated in the 44-year-old law was 19.

The bench concurred with the plaintiffs, saying the policy was discriminatory and against the protection and the fulfillment of children’s rights.

“[The current minimum marriage age] is not in line with the government’s 12-year compulsory education program as a girl who marries at 16 loses her chance to get an education,” justice I Dewa Gede Palguna said.

The state must uphold children’s rights to freedom from discrimination, exploitation, violence and injustice, justice Saldi Isra said. “If [the law] provides space for a child marriage to take place, the norm would be the economic and sexual exploitation of children.”

The 2002 Child Protection Law defines anyone under the age of 18 as a child.

Girls who marry at 16 were therefore considered as being forced into child marriage, which threatened, among other things, their reproductive health and rights to education, Palguna said.

“There are possibilities of child exploitation and an increased threat of violence against children in underage marriages,” he added.

A 2016 UNICEF report shows that Indonesia is among the countries with the highest number of child brides, with 1.408 million women aged between 20 and 24 having been married before the age of 18.

Overall, about 17 percent of Indonesians were married before the age of 18, 1.12 percent of whom were under 15, according to 2016 Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data.

With lawyers from the Indonesian Coalition to End Child Marriage (Koalisi 18+), the women presented to the court their goals to end underage marriage and requested the nine justices raise the minimum age for women to marry to that of men.

The court refused to grant the request, arguing that setting the minimum legal age of marriage was the authority of lawmakers and that the court did not want to make a decision that could prevent any future law revisions.

“[The court] orders lawmakers to revise the 1974 Marriage Law, particularly in regard to the minimum age for women to marry, within a maximum of three years,” chief justice Anwar Usman said.

“The provision in article 7 of the law […] will remain valid until the revision, which is set within the deadline [of three years].”

Should there be no revision prior to the deadline, the minimum legal age for both men and women to marry would be consistent with the Child Protection Law, Saldi said.

While the ruling was considered progressive, particularly as it overturned a 2015 court ruling that rejected a similar petition to raise the minimum age for girls to marry from 16 to 18, plaintiffs expressed disappointment with the three-year deadline.

“Why should we wait for three years when there are many young people who have to be [protected]? I don’t want them to experience what I went through,” said Endang, who currently lives in Indramayu, West Java.

Anggara, a member of Koalisi 18+, also voiced concern that many young girls would live with uncertainty for years. “We urge the government and the House of Representatives to immediately revise the article to ensure the protection of girls in Indonesia.”

While applauding the ruling, lawmakers could not guarantee whether they could revise the law as soon as possible, particularly as the House is to end its 2014 to 2019 serving period next year, and is still struggling to pass 50 bills on its priority list, the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

Gerindra Party lawmaker Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo, a member of the House Commission VIII overseeing religion and social affairs, said there would also be some opposition from certain parties, mostly men, that would hamper the revision. “There will be some members who will be concerned that the revision of the Marriage Law will be followed by the revision or insertion of articles that may violate [religious principals],” Rahayu said.

She cautioned that the revision would not significantly contribute to solving child marriage in the country, as the Marriage Law still allowed it as long as the couple obtained approval from their parents and a dispensation from a religious court.

Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) researcher Erasmus AT Napitupulu said that activists were considering challenging the dispensation policy, but added that they would focus on pushing the House to revise the current law.

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