The protection of children's rights cannot rely solely on state regulation. What is needed is an approach capable of bridging law, religious values, and the social realities that live within communities. This idea took center stage at the book discussion and launch of Membela Hak-Hak Anak: Diskursus Fikih, HAM, dan Kepentingan Terbaik Anak (Defending Children's Rights: Discourses on Islamic Jurisprudence, Human Rights, and the Best Interests of the Child), held at the Postgraduate School of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta.

The event brought together the book's authors, international academics, women's rights activists, and field practitioners including marriage registrars and religious counsellors. The book is the result of collaborative research developed through the international project Engaging the Faithful, conducted in partnership with the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo and involving a number of UIN Sunan Kalijaga academics.

In her presentation, one of the book's authors, Dr. Nina Mariani Noor of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Postgraduate School, explained that the book was born out of the persistently high rates of violence, exploitation, and child marriage in Indonesia. These issues, she argued, reflect a gap between the child protection norms enshrined in law and the practices that continue to occur within society.

"This book seeks to integrate the perspectives of Islamic jurisprudence (fikih), human rights, and the best interests of the child as a set of mutually complementary frameworks," she said.

The approach adopted does not treat law merely as a body of normative rules, but also as a social practice shaped by power relations, culture, and the economic conditions of communities. Accordingly, children are positioned as subjects with rights and interests that must be protected, not merely as objects of compassion.

One of the discussions that drew considerable attention was a presentation by Dr. Muh Mufid of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Postgraduate School on the role of the Office of Religious Affairs in preventing child marriage. His research, published in the Scopus-indexed international journal under the title "Adaptive Discretion in Child Marriage Prevention: Street-Level Bureaucracy in Indonesia's Islamic Marriage Administration", examines how KUA officials exercise bureaucratic discretion to navigate tensions between state law, Islamic jurisprudence, and local social norms.

Muh Mufid revealed that despite Law No. 16 of 2019 setting the minimum marriage age at 19 for both men and women, child marriage continues to occur. In 2022 alone, approximately 55,000 marriage dispensation requests were recorded across Indonesia, including 632 cases in the Special Region of Yogyakarta.

The research found that KUA officials frequently face ambivalence when confronted with child marriage cases, torn between their obligation to uphold state law on one hand, and the weight of jurisprudential interpretations, cultural pressures, and community economic conditions on the other.

"The KUA is a crucial actor in child protection precisely because it operates on the front line of public service. Its officials do not merely enforce regulations, they also provide counselling, education, and cross-sectoral advocacy to prevent child marriage," he explained.

Prof. Nelly van Doorn-Harder of Wake Forest University, United States, enriched the discussion with a comparative global perspective, asserting that child marriage is not solely an Indonesian issue but a global problem requiring a multidisciplinary approach.

She stressed the importance of understanding the psychological conditions and neurological development of adolescents when formulating child protection policies. Adolescents, she noted, are in a phase of identity formation and incomplete brain development that renders them more prone to impulsive behavior and risk-taking.

"Child protection therefore cannot rest on legal rules alone. We need to understand children's lived experiences and positioning as the starting point for both policy formulation and the interpretation of religious texts," she said.

Echoing this view, Dr. Lies Marcoes of the Yayasan Harkat Perempuan assessed the book as making a significant contribution to deepening sensitivity toward children's rights. She highlighted how children's vulnerability, particularly that of girls, frequently intensifies in crisis situations, whether caused by natural disaster or socio-economic hardship.

She further noted that marriage registrars and religious counsellors occupy a strategic position as translators of legal and religious values into social practice. Their experiences in handling cases involving children, she argued, must be documented as part of developing more responsive child protection policies.

This book discussion also demonstrated UIN Sunan Kalijaga's role as a centre for the development of Islamic scholarship that is responsive to contemporary humanitarian issues. Through research, international collaboration, and interdisciplinary dialogue, UIN Sunan Kalijaga continues to advance Islamic thought rooted not only in scholarly tradition but also capable of addressing the social challenges facing society.

More than a book launch, this forum served as an academic space to strengthen the synergy between Islamic studies, human rights, and public policy; all in the pursuit of better protection for the children of Indonesia. (humassk)