Unicef has urged the government to make public its data on child marriages.

Speaking at the launch of the international body’s study on child marriage in Malaysia, its representative to Malaysia Marianne Clark-Hattingh said such information was imperative for making better decisions.

“We call for data on child marriage to be declassified and desegregated by sex and age to support informed decision-making,” she said.

Earlier, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia law professor Noor Aziah Mohd Awal had presented her findings for the Unicef study at a roundtable discussion held at the International of Strategic and International Studies (Isis).

Among her findings were the high rate of divorce for child marriages and how administrative lapses had led by such unions being approved without thorough scrutiny.

She also highlighted how her work had been obstructed by limited access to data especially from the National Registration Department (NRD) and the National Statistics Department.

For such data sets, Noor Aziah said she had to rely on “secondary sources” like the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) but was barred from sharing certain data sets with the public.

“We were not able to get data from the Statistics Department but we do have some census data,” she said.

In her working paper for the study, Noor Aziah explicitly stated that the NRD had declined her requests for information, and said incomplete data was a hindrance towards a thorough understanding of the child marriage issue.

“For this study, the NRD declined to give researchers access to (child marriage) applications made by non-Muslims.

“[...] there is strong public opposition to the practice in Malaysia but the data that is needed to provide an accurate and complete assessment of the prevalence of child marriage in the country is outdated, unavailable or cannot be made public,” said Noor Aziah in her paper.

Aside from urging the data be made public, Unicef also called on the government to pass a bill setting the legal age to marry at 18 years old as per the Pakatan Harapan election manifesto.

Clark-Hattingh also commended the Harapan administration for developing the children’s well-being roadmap, announced last month by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Wan Azizah’s ministry will be collaborating with the Education, Health and Rural Development Ministry as well as the Home Affairs Ministry on the roadmap.