P

olicewomen from nine Asian countries have gathered for a conference in Semarang, Central Java, to discuss transnational crimes against women and children and raise awareness about future challenges.

'€œTransnational crimes, especially the ones involving women and children, continue to increase,'€ National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Asian Policewomen Regional Conference on Monday.

Sutarman underlined the significance of the conference in addressing international cooperation among police forces to handle cross-border crimes.

He went on to say that policewomen from different countries needed to hone a shared vision for dealing with crimes such as human trafficking and drug smuggling.

With such crimes on the rise and often affecting women and children, Indonesian policewomen are playing an increasingly prominent role for the caring yet firm perspective they bring to the job '€” characteristics Sutarman said the National Police aimed sought to have an image of being caring yet firm, embodied by the character of the women members of its force.

Policewomen from Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam are attending the conference, which runs through Thursday. The first conference was held in Bangladesh in 2011.

Separately, Women'€™s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Gumelar underscored the importance of fulfilling a 30 percent quota of women within all the country'€™s police forces.

'€œI am pushing for the fulfillment of 30 percent at the minimum. Currently, women make up only 3 percent,'€ Linda said.

She expressed appreciation to the National Police for a plan to recruit some 7,000 new policewomen.

She also said that policewomen were considered to have a better understanding of social problems in the community related to women and child cases.

She expressed hope that policewomen would also have the same opportunity to join education, development and training programs.

'€œPeople strongly feel the presence of policewomen in the community,'€ Linda said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the conference'€™s organizing committee, Brig. Gen. Soepartiwi expressed hope that the opening ceremony of the conference, which coincided with the commemoration of Kartini Day, would bring about the emancipatory spirit of heroine RA Kartini for all policewomen.

'€œI hope the spirit of RA Kartini is planted in the souls of policewomen,'€ Soepartiwi said.