Access to Justice for Women and Children in Divorce Cases in the Indonesian Religious Courts

Abstract

This research aims to investigate access to justice for children and women in the Religious Court Decisions after the issuance of Circular Letter of Supreme Court No. 4 of 2016, Point 5 on Religious Chamber. This particular point states that the Religious Court can require a father to provide child maintenance if the child is under the custody of the mother. This is a normative study, with the data obtained from interviews and 150 Religious court decisions. These decisions are issued by the Religious Courts of East Jakarta and Central Jakarta from 2015-2017. The examination of those Decisions reveals that most of the decisions on divorce do not mention any stipulation about child maintenance. This means that the Supreme Court Circular No. 4 of 2016 has not been able to protect children rights in the case of divorce, as well as women’s rights. From the court used in this study, only 14% that require the fathers to provide child maintenance after divorce. This percentage is almost similar to the decisions issued before the issuance of the Circular, which only 12% in 2016, and 14% in 2017.