Women's Charter (Singapore)
| Women's Charter | |
|---|---|
| An Act to provide for monogamous marriages and for the solemnization and registration of such marriages; to amend and consolidate the law relating to divorce, the rights and duties of married persons, the protection of family, the maintenance of wives and children and the punishment of offences against women and girls; and to provide for matters incidental thereto. | |
| Citation | Ordinance No. 18 of 1961; now Cap. 353, 2009 Rev. Ed. |
| Enacted by | Legislative Assembly of Singapore |
| Date commenced | 15 September 1961 |
| Legislative history | |
| Bill | Women's Charter Bill |
| Bill citation | Bill No. 126/61 |
| Bill published on | 3 March 1961 |
| First reading | 22 February 1961 |
| Second reading | 22 March 1961 |
| Third reading | 24 May 1961 |
| Committee report | Select Committee on the Women's Charter Bill [L.A. 10 of 1961] (1961), Official Report, Singapore: Government Printer |
| Status: In force | |
The Women's Charter is an Act of the Singaporean Parliament passed in 1961. The Act was designed to improve and protect the rights of females in Singapore and to guarantee greater legal equality for women in legally sanctioned relationships (except in the area of Muslims marriages, which are governed separately by the Administration of Muslim Law Act). Among other things, the Act provides for the institution of monogamous marriages, the rights of husbands and wives in marriage, the protection of the family, and the legal potentialities with regard to divorce and separation.
The Women's Charter was successfully campaigned for by Madam Chan Choy Siong, wife of Ong Pang Boon, a former Cabinet Minister of Singapore. Since 1997, divorcing couples have had to file a parenting plan that includes arrangements on custody, access to the child, and provisions for the child's education needs.
Latest amendments to the Charter were passed firstly in January 2011 that introduced provisions to facilitate marriages in Singapore, address divorce and its impact and strengthen the enforcement of maintenance orders. Amendments were passed again on 29 February 2016 after being proposed by the Ministry of Social and Family Development:
Around one in five marriages on the island ends in divorce. Court figures also show that there were 6,017 divorce cases in 2014, a 45 per cent rise from 2000. Custody battles are also of significant concern in recent times. In 2013, there were 1,700 court applications for enforcement orders compelling former spouses to maintain their ex-partners and children. This compares to 1,900 in 2009, before harsher penalties were introduced in 2011. By April 2014, there was an average of 118 orders each year for employers to directly pay out maintenance from defaulters' salaries.
In December 2015, the Association of Women for Action and Research made a proposition that the Women's Charter be renamed as Family Charter instead. Critics also regard the Charter as having transformed from being a safeguard for disadvantaged women into a method of discriminating against men.
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