Guest Speaker: Reproductive rights a challenge for RI

Amnesty International recently released their latest report, titled Life Without a Choice, which documents barriers to reproductive health in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post spoke with Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Salil Shetty on the importance of repealing restrictive laws and regulations.

Question: This year, Amnesty has chosen to report on women’s reproductive rights. What is the significance of this report and the issues it raises?

Answer: Women’s rights are fundamental because half the population are women. If you take the poverty alleviation statistics in any country, and Indonesia is no exception, the highest number of people living in poverty are women and children.

So, there’s no question that they affect everything. It’s very easy to map the status of women and the state of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

How far reaching is the issue of women’s reproductive rights in correlation with the MDGs?

Indonesia has made some important progress in several of the MDGs, such as poverty alleviation, but the specific issue of women’s rights, which fundamentally determines the progress of other major goals, like maternal mortality, is still a challenge for Indonesia to address.

Therefore, the issues raised in the report highlight the significant violations of not only women’s rights, but also human rights.

Why is it important for Indonesia to move along that direction and grant women their full reproductive rights?

Things have changed, and they will continue to change, but my concern is that if Indonesia wants to be a regional and global player, they have to get their domestic act together.

There is still a gap between the very concrete situation on the ground and what the government says in the international forum and what is prescribed in the Indonesian constitution regarding the right to health.

If you take the case of rape, there have been improvements in the overall issue of sexual violence against women, but it’s still a big problem. Women who become pregnant from rape are still not given information and services related to dealing with abortion, when in fact, abortion for rape victims is legal. This is not known to most people.

The presence of discriminatory laws and ordinances reflects that legislators themselves support prejudiced views against women. Who, then, is responsible in debunking these stereotypical views at the political level?

I think the people who can change these mindsets are ordinary citizens, and that’s what is happening. We work with a lot of local organizations, such as women’s movements, in changing these views. I don’t think there’s a shortcut to it and its happening.

Does this means that the government must push themselves and the society they oversee towards change?

They have a special responsibility because they are there to bring about the required levels of welfare and change. So while everyone’s responsible, it’s the government that’s accountable.

So, as bearers of duty, they have the additional responsibility of guiding things to make sure they are moving in the right direction. The government must play a very proactive role, starting from the leaders, such as the President and the key people in power who have the means to push for changes in behavior and attitude.

It is really the poorest of the poor and the marginalized people for whom the rule of law is most important, particularly women as the ones facing multiple discrimination.

With these problems in mind, what is your call?

Our call is very clear. We are calling on the government to repeal all discriminatory provisions, including those in the Health Law, the Criminal Code, and for the decriminalization of abortion.