S

emarang and Surakarta in Central Java are gearing up for a campaign to make the cities “child-friendly”.

The Semarang branch of the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), supported by AusAID (the Australian Agency for International Development), recently organized a training entitled “Toward a Child-Friendly Semarang” in the hope of helping to prevent violations against children.

“This was the second training after September to November last year,” LBH Semarang chairman Slamet Haryanto said on Tuesday at Genuk district in Semarang. He said the training was held as a response to a spate of incidents that saw children being implicated in legal cases.

“The National Commission for Children Protection (Komnas Anak) has dealt with six legal cases involving minors this year alone,” he said.

Media reports covered the case of two brothers, FZ, 14, and MZ, 17, who both died in police custody in Sijunjung, West Sumatra. In separate cases, a court in Denpasar, Bali found DW, 15, guilty of grabbing a purse apparently containing only Rp 1,000; while AAL, 16, was convicted of stealing a pair of sandals by a court in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

In Sangir Talaud, North Sulawesi, a child aged 7 was obliged to report every Monday and Thursday to local police after he was involved in a fight in which another boy, aged 8, and the son of a judge, was injured. In East Nusa Tenggara, VN, 16, faced charges of two years in prison for allegedly stealing flowers before he was acquitted following his trial.

“The police should prioritize restorative justice when faced with cases involving children,” Slamet said.

It means, he said, the police should attempt to secure an amiable settlement without having to bring the cases to court. The police are seen as having the authority to avoid legal proceedings.

“The legal apparatus is generally unaware of this,” Slamet said.

The LBH campaign aimed their human rights and restorative justice trainings to schools, subdistrict heads in 10 districts and police personnel.

“Our mission has been to unify perceptions among the training participants so that they can carry out their own roles to protect children in their respective communities,” said Erwin Dwi Kristianto, an LBH official in charge of programming.

In Surakarta, the municipal administration began a child-friendly campaign by issuing Child Incentive Cards (KIA) as a way to meet children’s basic needs.

However, since its launch three years ago, the campaign has been deemed as too slow, with only 8 percent of 125,000 children aged up to 18, being facilitated by the KIA.

The authority has blamed the lack of take up on the slow dissemination of information about the program to local residents.

One of the merits promoted by the program is that children in the municipality would receive incentives when paying not only for education, but also for recreational and entertainment facilities.

“KIA can also function as identity cards for children who do not have other forms of identity cards,” Said Romadhon, head of data and statistics with the administration, said.

Over 43 stakeholders, including UNICEF, have given their commitment to support the program. They showed their support by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday.

Irawati Kusumorasri, the owner of a dance school called Semarak Chandra Kirana, said she was interested in contributing to the program through dance education.

“We provide education in dance and we are enthusiastic about contributing to the program to make the city friendly toward children,” she said.

Surakarta is one of 15 cities designated for the pilot project of the child-friendly campaign in Indonesia. The city hosted the second International Conference on a Child-Friendly Asia Pacific on June 30-July 2 last year with the theme “Engaging Children”.