Jokowi Calls for Accelerated Deliberation of Sexual Violence Bill
President Jokowi has assigned the Law and Human Rights Ministry and the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry to accelerate deliberations on the sexual violence eradication bill.
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KOMPAS TEAM
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BPMI SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN
President Joko Widodo asked that the discussion of the Bill on the Crime of Sexual Violence be discussed immediately. This was conveyed in a virtual statement, Tuesday (4/1/2022) afternoon.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has urged his ministers to speed up the approval of the sexual violence eradication bill. The President has asked the Human Rights Ministry and the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry to coordinate with the House of Representatives so that the deliberation of the bill can move more quickly. The draft of the bill was submitted to the House in 2016 for approval, but it has still not been passed.
"The protection of the victims of sexual violence should be our common concern, especially related to sexual violence against women, which should be urgently addressed," the President said in a video statement broadcast from Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday (4/1/2022).
In addition to assigning two ministers to the task, the President also asked the government task force that handles the bill to study and list the problems in the bill so that the discussions between the government and the House could be focused on substance and be carried out quickly.
Earlier, in his 2022 New Year message, Pope Francis called for an end to violence against women. Social problems related to motherhood and women were the focus of the Pope's sermon when he led a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
“And since mothers bestow life and women keep the world [together], let us all make greater efforts to promote mothers and to protect women,” Francis said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing for almost two years, the Pope has several times raised the issue of the increasing rates of domestic violence in a number of countries. Social restrictions have caused women to be trapped with perpetrators of violence.
Kompas
Screenshot of the Plenary Meeting Decision making on the results of the Drafting of the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence, (TPKS) led by the Chairman of the Legislation Body (Baleg) Supratman Andi Agtas, each faction in the Baleg DPR expressed their views on the results of the drafting of the TPKS Bill on Wednesday (8/12/2021).
Although it was first proposed in 2016, the sexual violence eradication bill, which was originally called the sexual violence elimination bill, has never been formally discussed by the House. Before the year-end, the House agreed to move the deliberation forward, but the legislators failed to reach an agreement to bring the bill to the House’s plenary session, a process that should be carried out to approve the bill as an initiative of the House.
The House argued that the bill could not be taken to a plenary meeting because the meeting of the House’s leadership and the House Steering Committee (Bamus), which was responsible for preparing the plenary agenda, was held before the House’s Legislation Body (Baleg) agreed to approve the bill as initiated or proposed by House (Kompas, 18/12/2021).
At that meeting, House Speaker Puan Maharani promised to discuss and approve the proposed law as a House initiative during the House’s first plenary session in 2022.
An opinion poll conducted by Kompas in October found that 94.4 percent of respondents wanted the deliberation of three bills, namely the sexual violence eradication bill, the personal data protection bill and the criminal acts of asset confiscation bill, to be completed in 2022. (Kompas, 2 7/12/ 2021)
Sexual violence
Wahidah Suaib of the team for the civil society network for the sexual violence eradication bill and a member of the executive board of Fatayat Nahdlatul Ulama, appreciated the President's support in accelerating the bill’s deliberation.
“In Pak Jokowi's first term as President, this bill failed to be passed . Don't let it fail again in his second term," she said.
Wahidah said that with Puan as House speaker, it was expected that the deliberation of the bill would be part of the House’s main agenda in 2022.
“Since the sexual violence eradication bill was included in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) in 2016, no agenda has been arranged to deliberate the bill. As Indonesia has categorically entered a sexual violence emergency, this bill should be passed in 2022," she added.
Kompas/Priyombodo
Action to commemorate Mother's Day by protesters from various alliances in front of the DPR building, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (22/12/2021). They demanded the ratification of the Sexual Violence Bill or the TPKS Bill.
Women's activist and women's organization founder Rotua Valentina Sagala said the President's push for the acceleration of the approval of the bill would not necessarily guarantee that the deliberation of the bill would go smoothly. She believed that the discussions would be hampered by the political interests of some parties.
"There is no black and white in legal politics, although of course, we hope that with the President's support, the factions in the House that support the President will immediately take the initiative to accelerate the process. In our state administrative mechanism, the executive cannot give orders to the legislature," said Valentina.
Therefore, it would be necessary to encourage the public to monitor the deliberation of the bill so that the resultant law would side with the victims. “The bill should be seen as an important opportunity to find a comprehensive prevention and treatment system from upstream to downstream, not only related to procedural law or criminal acts but also to aspects such as prevention and which parties which have to be regulated," she added.
We are grateful that the President finally talked and pushed for the approval of the sexual violence eradication bill.
The commissioner of the National Commission for Women, Bahrul Fuad, expressed his appreciation for the President's attention to the bill. "We are grateful that the President finally talked and pushed for the approval of the sexual violence eradication bill," he said.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many women, girls and boys have been reported to have experienced various types of violence. The rate of online gender-based violence experienced by women aged 15-19 years is the highest Indonesia has ever recorded. The Lampung Children's Advocacy Institute also reported a number cases of violence against women and children in 2021. Of the 239 cases of violence reported, most of the victims were children under the age of 18. ( INA / WKM/ VIO/FRO/REUTERS)
This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.
