T

he House of Representatives says it plans to accelerate its deliberation on passing the regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on sexual violence against children into law.

The commitment was made as part of the effort to curb rampant sexual offenses in the country.

The House aims to hold sessions with the Health Ministry, the Social Affairs Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry during the next sitting period to make sure all the points in the regulation can be exercised effectively.

“Our focus is on passing the regulation into law. Tomorrow, the House will start talking about this,” chairman of House Commission VIII overseeing social and religious affairs Ali Taher Parasong said on Monday.

The problem, he said, was the Indonesian Doctors Association’s (IDI) refusal to implement the regulation, saying that it violated medical ethics.

In May this year, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed Perppu No.1/2016 on sexual violence against children to amend the 2002 Child Protection Law.

According to the new regulation, tougher sanctions will be imposed on child rapists, including a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and the use of chemical castration. Also considered is the electronic monitoring of sex offenders after their release from prison.

Mualimin Abdi, director general for human rights at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, emphasized the urgency of passing the Perppu into law, describing sexual violence against children as an extraordinary crime.

“We hope through the implementation of the law that perpetrators will think a thousand times before intending to commit such acts,” he said. He asked the IDI and the wider public not to reject the regulation as the government was still mulling the technical aspects of chemical castration.

As the punishment would be imposed by court ruling it could not be rejected. “For instance, if a judge condemns a perpetrator to death, how could the police refuse to do that? They cannot say it would be contrary to their conscience because they don’t want kill people,” Mualimin said.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA), urged the government to immediately enact its plan to impose chemical castration as he believed it would act as a deterrence against people who intended to rape and murder children.

“Chemical castration is not like eliminating the sexual organs that God has given. It is more for the purpose of controlling their libido and sexual desires,” he said, arguing that it was not a violation of human rights.

According to data from the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, there were 14,000 cases of violence against children in 2014. Of these, physical violence accounted for 6,746 cases, followed by 2,620 cases of psychological violence and 3,219 cases of sexual violence. “The number continues rising from year to year,” Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) chairman Asrorun Niam Sholeh said.

On April 2 a 14-year-old girl from Bengkulu was gang-raped and murdered by 12 men and youths on her way home from school. Last week it was reported that a 5-year-old girl was burned to death in East Kalimantan by a neighbor. (win)