PACOS Trust holds awareness webinar to end child marriage in Sabah

 By Olivia Miwil - November 24, 2020 @ 6:15pm

Kapayan assemblyman Jannie Lasimbang at the webinar. -Picture courtesy of PACOS Trust

KOTA KINABALU: A community-based organisation held a webinar to raise awareness on ending child marriage in Sabah.

The event today was organised by PACOS Trust, and is part of a three-year programme funded by the European Union. The event brought together youths from Keningau and Banggi to take part in the talks.

A joint statement released after the event said that in Sabah, it was said that marriage for people under age 18 is thought to be part of a cultural system.

The statement also said the cultural system promotes the practice especially in Beluran, Kota Marudu, Tenom, Keningau and Nabawan.

According to the Syariah Judiciary Department, Sabah recorded 955 cases of marriages under 18 years from 2011 to October 2016, from which 505 cases involved female Muslim children, it said.

The statement said that for non-Muslim marriages, the National Registration Department recorded a total of 5,215 child marriage in Malaysia between 2005 and October 2015.

"It is hoped that every child can enjoy her life without being pressured into marriage and defend her rights to have an adequate standard of living, health and education," PACOS Trust executive director Anne Lasimbang said.

"We cannot allow our children to be deprived of their rights just because child marriage is a past and current practice."

Other participants at the webinar were Kapayan assemblyman Jannie Lasimbang, former Sabah Women's Advisory Council president, Datuk Dr Tarsiah Taman and National Population and Family Development Board deputy director Suzanna Piny.

Jannie, who is a former assistant state Law and Native Affairs minister, said that the previous Sabah government had passed a policy to set the minimum age of marriage at age 18 on Oct 4 last year .

"A '10-year Action Plan on Ending Marriage Below 18 Years' has also been drawn up by the Law and Native Affairs ministry in collaboration with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef).

"The legal amendment process has also finished drafting provisions and Guidelines under the Native Court Enactment 1992 and the Undang-undang Perkawinan Keluarga Islam 1992/2004," she said, adding that however it had yet to be presented to the state Cabinet before the change of government.

Apart from that, she said Sabah had also contributed to the drafting of the five-year National Strategy Plan in Handling the Causes of Child Marriage, which was launched in January.