Indonesia Passes Sex Abuse Law in a Win for Women, and Jokowi - Bloomberg

Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, passed a law on sexual abuse on Tuesday, marking a victory for women’s groups and President Joko Widodo after years of opposition from religious conservatives.

The new Criminal Acts of Sexual Violence Law makes Indonesia among the first Muslim-majority nations to have a dedicated law on sexual offenses, which has generally been considered a private matter. Some Islamist parties and religious groups had held up the legislative process for the past six years, arguing that the new law will promote extramarital sex and homosexuality.

Jokowi, as the president is known, made the final push for the law in response to rising public concern over Indonesia’s lack of legal redress for cases of sexual abuse, many of which had surfaced during the pandemic.

The new law allows immediate action be taken on reported cases of sexual harassment based on a single piece of evidence, down from the current requirement of three, said Willy Aditya, deputy chairman of the parliament’s legislative body.

“This is a major step forward for us. It is the only law that offers protection for sexual abuse victims and also provides support for their healing process,” he said in a phone interview on Monday.

The law was passed by parliament after winning support from all factions, including the Islamist Social Justice Party, previously a strong opponent of the legislation. The final version has been watered down from the initial draft to win over more conservative lawmakers. Among the key changes are the omission of an article which requires that parties involved in a sexual act give their consent, which critics argued promotes extramarital sex and homosexuality, said Aditya.

Rising Cases

Recent high-profile cases of abuse had triggered widespread anger and added political pressure to Jokowi and parliament to act. One such case involved multiple instances of rape by the owner of an Islamic boarding school in West Java. Another one was related to a teacher in Central Java who molested 15 female students in return for good grades.

Violence against women jumped over 50% in Indonesia in 2021 to 338,496 cases, according to data compiled by the National Commission on Violence Against Women. The commission itself received more than 3,800 abuse reports last year, up from nearly 2,400 in 2020, the group said in its annual report published in March. Data collection was disrupted in the first year of the pandemic, which meant cases in 2020 were likely higher than reported for the year, according to the commission.

We suspect the pandemic lockdowns “also contributed to the jump in reported cases last year, although it is difficult to confidently say this without a thorough investigation,” said Andy Yentriyani, head of the National Commission on Sexual Violence against Women.

Those cases also prompted Nadiem Makarim, a minister overseeing several briefs including education, to take more direct action against sexual harassment. In November, he issued a ministerial decree to protect university students from sexual crimes, a move that was hailed by proponents of the sexual abuse law but criticized by the same parties and religious groups that opposed it.

source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-12/indonesia-passes-sex-abuse-law-in-a-win-for-women-and-jokowi

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