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Legal breakthroughs expected in sexual, gender-based crime cases
Reports on the number of sexual and gender-based violence cases in Indonesia reveal only the tip of the iceberg.
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A women’s group activist arranges shoes during the Shoes in Silence event, held to observe the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, outside the House of Representatives compound in Central Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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utgers WPF Indonesia has been offering a media fellowship since July 2021 to 10 national and regional journalists, including the author, in a bid to educate the public about the importance of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents and young adults. This is the fifth and final of five articles produced under the program.
Reports on the number of sexual and gender-based violence cases in Indonesia reveal only the tip of the iceberg and will remain so as long as weak legal protection lies beyond the surface.
Victims still experience stigmatization and discriminatory treatment from law enforcement officers despite efforts to apply a gender perspective in handling such cases. These not only obstruct their way of seeking justice but also hamper their recovery processes.
In 2017, the Supreme Court released a court procedure for handling cases of women in conflict with the law. It was a favorable guideline that promotes gender equality, protects the victims from gender-biased questions or remarks and facilitates their needs for recovery.
“The implementation, however, is still far from our expectation,” Nancy Sunarno from Generation Gender (Gen-G) said in a webinar session held under the Rutgers WPF Indonesia Media Fellowship program.
Gen-G partnership consists of Rutgers, the Jakarta office of the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH Apik Jakarta), Think Policy Society and Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI), which focuses on raising public support, advocating for improved policies and laws, and strengthening civil society as a way to contribute to gender justice.
Restrictions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) receiving fewer reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence that year, namely 299,911, a decrease from 421,471 in 2019.
