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View all search resultsHouse drags feet on sexual violence bill
The House of Representatives has passed on an opportunity to endorse the sexual violence bill before the end of the year, further delaying its passage.
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pall of uncertainty has descended over the long-awaited sexual violence bill after the House of Representatives leadership declined to pass the legislation at the last plenary session of the year, even as an ongoing increase in reports of sexual violence in the country makes the bill’s supporters increasingly impatient.
The House reneged on a commitment to take on the legislation before Mother’s Day on Dec. 22, after lawmakers failed to confirm it at a meeting before Thursday’s plenary session.
Last week, the House Legislation Body (Baleg) agreed to endorse the passage of the sexual violence bill after at least nine rounds of negotiations. Then, it won majority support among House factions in the final round of talks on Dec. 8. Of the House’s nine party factions, seven voted to approve the bill, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) rejected it and the Golkar Party requested a delay so that it could be further refined.
But the bill had already missed the chance to be confirmed by the House Steering Committee (Bamus), which had convened on Dec. 6.
House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of the Gerindra Party blamed the failure on a “technicality”.
“When the bill was approved [for endorsement], we had already finished the Bamus meeting, so the bill did not make it to that meeting,” Dasco said on Thursday.
House Speaker Puan Maharani of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the bill had been delayed by “a matter of timing” and that the House simply wanted to ensure that the lawmaking process followed established procedure to prevent it from being questioned in the future.
