W

hen it comes to settling cases of violence against women, formal legal mechanisms are not the preferred option for women living in traditional communities, a National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) report says.

On National Women’s Day on Wednesday, the commission released a report titled Women’s Access to Justice: Formal and Informal Legal Mechanisms in Cases of Violence Against Women.

From 20 cases in South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi, there were 12 in which female victims preferred to resolve their cases through informal mechanisms. The cases included domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment.

With informal methods, victims used personal-level traditional institutions such as elders, village chiefs or religious leaders, while formal mechanisms meant following the case through the state’s legal institutions, beginning with the police through the district attorney and the courts.

“The choice to settle cases through formal mechanisms means going through the courts, which takes longer and during which time victims are susceptible to further violence,” Komnas Perempuan official Sri Nurherwati said.

The commission found in one rape attempt case in South Sumatra that the woman who reported the case became the defendant, after she was accused of abuse by her attempted rapist.

Sri said women preferred informal mechanisms because they were quicker compared to formal legal processes.

Most women whose cases were monitored still live in communities led by traditional community councils, such as Ngata Toro and Tompu in Central Sulawesi.

She said informal systems did not necessarily mean that women were safer. During settlement processes in traditional legal systems, women’s voices are seldom heard, she said.

As a result, the women’s perspective on justice was invisible in the decisions made about them.

Justice and Human Rights Ministry director general of human rights protection Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said informal legal mechanisms were proven to have fewer depressive effects on women because they were less rigid compared to the formal system. But, she said there should be a legal framework to guarantee that decisions made through informal processes had the same forms of justice for women as ones in formal procedures.

“We can use the restorative justice approach, which is used in the law on trials for children. We bring the victim and perpetrator together and find a form of justice both parties can agree on. A just decision does not need to be made in the courts because judges’ decisions do not necessarily contain the women’s perspective,” she said.

Azriana from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam’s Women Volunteers for Humanity (RPUK) NGO said women should be educated about their rights as many women thought what happened to them was not violence.

“When a female victim is not well-educated about her rights and justice, she may think an unfair decision is justice,” she said.

Harkristuti said society needed to become more familiar with women’s perspectives on justice. She said civil servants needed to have a better understanding of human rights and women’s rights in order to do their work well.

“Workshops for legal officers are a must,” she said.

The commission recorded 143,586 cases of violence against women in 2009. That was an increase by more than 200 percent compared to the previous year.