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Use outrage over delayed sexual violence bill to fight for victims
Today, it is hard to say we are fully civilized while victims and survivors continue to battle their fears amid roaming sexual predators.
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Activists conduct a protest against violence to women and children at the Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle on Jan. 29. They demanded government and the society to pay more attention to sexual crimes against children and women. (Tempo/Eko Siswono Toyudho)
T
he announcement sparked shock and outrage. “We’re revoking the sexual violence bill [from the 2020 legislative priority list]. The deliberation is rather complicated,” said Marwan Dasopang, deputy chairman of House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing social affairs, at a meeting of the House legislation body (Baleg).
As quoted in this newspaper, netizens promptly offered to define “complicated” or “difficult”.
Yacko, an Indonesian musician, rapped in her video, “Difficult is when a rape victim sees a doctor or a police officer but is asked, ‘Do you pray five times a day?’”
As of Sunday, 111 organizations and networks and more than 30 individuals signed a petition demanding that Baleg include the sexual violence bill in this year’s priority list. Despite all the work done to advance the bill, which was started by the former batch of lawmakers, the signatories said much more support was needed.
They urged the political parties, the House’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus and the nation’s first female House speaker, Puan Maharani, to ensure the bill’s timely deliberation.
Over the past few years, demands for the passage of the sexual violence bill have intensified as reports of sexual abuse inside and outside the home have continued, including at the workplace, in public spaces, on campus and in the supposedly safe environs of houses of worship and religious schools. Victims who mustered enough courage to report their cases found their nightmares reduced to charges of “indecent behavior” by the alleged perpetrators, as the Criminal Code recognizes only forced penile penetration as sexual violence.
The bill contains an unprecedented state recognition of nonconsensual relations and sexual violence because of “imbalanced power and/or gender relations”. It provides nine definitions of sexual violence beyond the limited definitions in the Criminal Code and Child Protection Law.
