TY - JOUR
T1 - Living in a Legal Limbo
T2 - Mechanisms to “Fix” The Legal and Social Positions of Unregistered Children in Indonesia
AU - Horii, Hoko
AU - Wirastri, Theresia Dyah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, University of Indonesia Faculty of Law. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This paper examines the reasons and consequences of a lacking birth-registration in Indonesia, as well as the mechanisms to ‘fix’ it. In order to avoid the legal and social consequences of the lack of registration, creative and ad-hoc solutions are crafted – not only by the individual families who face the problem, but also by their community, including local and state actors who are involved in the mechanisms and paperwork. These mechanisms exist also because of state’s reluctance to enforce regulation related to unregistered marriage and children born into unregistered marriage as these matters are religiously and culturally delicate. We argue that the state facilitates all types of unregistered marriages, which results in blurring legal parameters of marriage. This leads unregistered children to be living in a legal limbo: their legal status and attached rights remain unclear, not being fully ensured of their rights to public services, inheritance, and child maintenance.
AB - This paper examines the reasons and consequences of a lacking birth-registration in Indonesia, as well as the mechanisms to ‘fix’ it. In order to avoid the legal and social consequences of the lack of registration, creative and ad-hoc solutions are crafted – not only by the individual families who face the problem, but also by their community, including local and state actors who are involved in the mechanisms and paperwork. These mechanisms exist also because of state’s reluctance to enforce regulation related to unregistered marriage and children born into unregistered marriage as these matters are religiously and culturally delicate. We argue that the state facilitates all types of unregistered marriages, which results in blurring legal parameters of marriage. This leads unregistered children to be living in a legal limbo: their legal status and attached rights remain unclear, not being fully ensured of their rights to public services, inheritance, and child maintenance.
KW - marriage registration
KW - state legality
KW - street-level bureaucrat
KW - unregistered children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85187913421&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.54828/ijsls.2022v2n1.1
DO - 10.54828/ijsls.2022v2n1.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85187913421
SN - 2808-2591
VL - 2
JO - Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies
JF - Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies
IS - 1
M1 - 1
ER -