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Rights group deplores passage of chemical castration law
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Members of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) discuss the sexual assault bill draft with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the State Palace in Jakarta on June 8. (Kompas.com/Fabian Januarius Kuwado)
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akarta-based Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) has deplored the passage law (Perppu) on child protection into law by the House of Representatives that stipulates harsher punishments for sex offenders, saying that the law has violated the country's anti-torture stance.
The law, which punishes rapists with chemical castration and a maximum sentence of the death penalty, has contradicted Indonesia's Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI) which pushed for the ratification of UN Convention against Torture, HRWG acting director Muhammad Hafiz said.
"We urge the government and lawmakers to solve cases of sexual violence against children by imposing severe punishment; however, chemical castration and the death penalty are only reactive solutions chosen without thorough study," Hafiz said in a statement on Wednesday.
Besides, the detailed mechanism to conduct chemical castration against convicted child molesters was still unclear and the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) had also publicly refused to execute the injection, Hafiz said.
The law neglected the rights of the victims of molestation since it did not include rehabilitation or medical and social treatment, for which the government should have accounted, Hafiz said.
He further called for the House of Representatives to revise the Perppu and conduct a comprehensive study on its legal substances so that the government could balance the efforts between eradicating sexual violence against children and upholding human rights principles. (bbn)
