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House passes law to end impunity for sexual violence
Lawmakers make good on their promise to pass a bill that offers greater protection for survivors of harassment and other forms of sexual violence.
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Activists stage a rally in front of the House of Representatives compound in Jakarta in January, demanding the deliberation and passing of a bill on sexual violence eradication. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
T
he House of Representatives passed a highly anticipated sexual violence bill into law on Tuesday, which provides a comprehensive legal framework for dealing with sexual violence, after nearly a decade of struggle to convince the political elite of the need for more robust forms of protection for survivors.
The law secured wide approval from lawmakers and the government in a plenary meeting witnessed by a broad network of women’s rights activists.
Willy Aditya, a Nasdem Party politician who also led the legislative working group to deliberate the bill, lauded the lawmaking process as a “model” for meaningful civic engagement.
“Even at the last second, we still welcomed public participation,” he said at the plenary on Tuesday.
The sexual violence bill was first formulated in 2014 by the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), informed by the need to address rampant cases of sexual assault reported since the start of the decade.
The initial draft sought to include 15 different forms of sexual violence but was later whittled down to just nine when it was handed over to lawmakers in 2016, foreshadowing the uphill battle that awaited in a largely conservative country where sexual abuse is still widely regarded as a private matter.
For years, the bill repeatedly failed to be passed due to strong opposition from Islamic political parties, particularly the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which argued that the law would support the legalization of adultery and extramarital sex, as well as endorse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) relations – issues that are still widely shunned.
