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Jakarta Post

Cruel misunderstanding of sexual violence bill

The sexual violence bill aiming to protect victims and witnesses of sexual violence has become a hot topic as a result of a petition on Change

Carrisa Tehputri (The Jakarta Post)
Abu Dhabi
Tue, February 12, 2019

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Cruel misunderstanding of sexual violence bill

T

he sexual violence bill aiming to protect victims and witnesses of sexual violence has become a hot topic as a result of a petition on Change.org titled “Tolak RUU Pro Zina” (Reject Pro-Adultery Bill).

The petition was started by a woman, Maimon Herawati, reportedly a lecturer, who appealed to the House of Representatives against passing the bill, arguing that it endorsed acts that were against Islamic values, such as consensual extramarital sexual relations, same-sex relations and even legalizing abortion.

She also argued that the bill would criminalize mothers who forced their daughters to wear the hijab. Yet, none of the articles in the current draft bill endorses those acts. If anything, a screenshot posted by Maimon on her Facebook account regarding the legalization of abortion and endorsement of a third gender was taken from a separate website, not from the draft bill that is available online.

In an interview, Maimon said the bill was “incomplete” as it did not directly criminalize sexual activities that were against Islamic and Eastern moral values, and according to her, if one act in a bill is not criminalized, it means that the law supports that said act (argumentum a contrario).

Her assumption is very flawed, as the term is often deemed a logical fallacy in the legal field. Just because an illegal logging bill, for instance, does not mention that it criminalizes child trafficking, it doesn’t mean it endorses or supports child trafficking.

Likewise, just because the draft sexual violence bill does not criminalize extramarital sexual relations, it does not mean that it supports free sex.

Her petition is shifting the attention from what really matters, which is to provide protection to victims and witness of sexual assault, to her own made-up assumptions to further her own personal agenda.

Furthermore, the issues she raised such as abortion, adultery and prostitution are all already regulated under our current Criminal Code (KUHP), so there is no need for the proposed bill to regulate those issues.

The sexual violence bill, which involved the National Commission on Violence Against Women, has been in limbo since 2016, despite the urgency for a clear law amid the alarming rate of sexual violence cases in Indonesia.

The current draft bill clearly defines different forms of sexual violence and sets out the responsibilities of the state in dealing with each of those instances. It also provides for the protection of victims and witnesses, increases their access to justice, recovery and reparation mechanisms for victims and rehabilitation for
offenders.

Proponents of the bill argue that its ratification is desperately needed to strengthen and update the current vulnerable legal framework around sexual violence. It is extremely difficult to provide protection and to serve justice in sexual violence cases when there is not a comprehensive legal instrument available.

For instance, the Domestic Violence Law does not cover violence outside legal unions; the Child Protection Law cannot accommodate cases of violence against those no longer classified as minors or those under 18 years old.



Victims will be encouraged to step up [...] without worrying that they would be the one imprisoned instead of the violator.



Neither can the Human Trafficking Law accommodate sexual violence cases that do not meet requirements for a human trafficking case. Meanwhile, the Criminal Code only focuses on imprisoning the perpetrator without any provisions on how to deal with the victims afterwards, and it abandons the importance of regulating the prevention, recovery, and other means necessary to prevent sexual violence.

The Criminal Code also merely recognizes two forms of sexual violence, namely rape and molestation that are narrowly defined as vaginal penetration. The definition does not reflect current internationally accepted definitions and it denies thousands of rape victims their right of access to justice. The sexual violence bill provides a more comprehensive legal instrument for sexual violence cases. Rape victims will be protected regardless of relationship status, the bill protects everyone equally — men, women, disabled people, children and other vulnerable groups — from sexual violence, the bill protects everyone from forced prostitution and forced abortion, and most importantly, the bill will fill in the lacuna in the current law that still grants immunity to perpetrators as a result of the narrow legal definition of sexual violence.

Further, the bill also includes a broader variety of sentencing options for the reform and rehabilitation of the offenders, including community service, removal of the right to practice a profession and removal of office for public officials.

The sexual violence bill needs to be ratified without any more delay to bring protection and justice to sexual violence victims. The bill is important to create a safer Indonesia that is free from sexual violence, where people are deterred from committing violence, and where victims will be encouraged to step up and report their cases without worrying that they would be the one imprisoned instead of the violator.

Thus the bill is not about legalizing acts that are against religious values or Indonesian norms; instead it seeks to provide safety and protection to every single Indonesian. Seeing the potential benefit and the urgency for the bill, it is beyond cruel to purposefully spread lies to oppose the bill if it’s not in line with one’s personal agenda.
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The writer is a public policy researcher in the United Arab Emirates.

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