Jakarta protest calls on parliament to immediately ratify sexual violence law

Tempo – December 8, 2018
March calling for DPR to ratify sexual violence bill – December 8, 2018 (Tempo)
March calling for DPR to ratify sexual violence bill – December 8, 2018 (Tempo)

Ryan Dwiky Anggriawan, Jakarta – Civil society organisations held a march and protest action in Jakarta on Saturday December 8 calling on the House of Representatives (DPR) to immediately enact the Draft Law (RUU) on the Eradication of Sexual Violence. The chairperson of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Azriana Manalu, also took part in the action.

“This is a civil society movement made up of several civil society organisations, trade unions and victim support groups. They are holding this action to urge the government and the DPR RI [Republic of Indonesia] to immediately enact the RUU on the eradication of sexual violence”, said Manalu shortly after giving her greetings to the rally.

According to Manalu, the RUU on the eradication of sexual violence has been included in the national legislation program (prolegnas) since 2016 and became a priority prolegnas in 2017 and 2018. Yet, she said, the RUU has still not been deliberated.

“The public has lost patience because every day people fall victim to sexual violence, meanwhile deliberations on legal protections have been extremely slow”, said Manalu.

Manalu said that the large number of sexual violence cases occurring in society, particularly against women, is because sexual violence is not properly recognised in the Criminal Code (KUHP). As a consequence, she said, the legal process is never easy and prosecutions burden the victims.

“We need special legislation to protect society from sexual violence in a comprehensive way, an RUU which can regulate this from top to bottom. In order to ensure that sexual violence can be stopped”, she said.

The action, which began at 8am at the Sarinah department store parking lot in Central Jakarta, was continued with a march to the Aspiration Monument located near the National Monument (Monas).

Upon arriving at the Aspiration Monument protesters gave speeches from a stage calling for the immediate ratification of the RUU on the eradication of sexual violence.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “DPR Diminta Segera Sahkan RUU Penghapusan Kekerasan Seksual”.]

Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1153470/dpr-diminta-segera-sahkan-ruu-penghapusan-kekerasan-seksual/