Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women is seeking a revision of the Criminal Code Procedures (Kuhap) to make them more gender-sensitive.
Speaking at a discussion on violence against women at the Sahid Hotel in Jakarta earlier this week, commission chairwoman Kamala Chandrakirana said the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment should be at the forefront in pressing for legislation that was not biased against women.
Kamala singled out the code's articles on rape, which require women to prove a sexual assault with a medical report in which the presence of sperm is essential evidence.
"It means that there has to be penetration, whereas the international standard rules that attempted rape is already a punishable crime," she said.
The discussion also involved visiting City University of New York law professor and International Women's Rights Law Clinic director Rhonda Copelon. Copelon said that under international law, it was not necessary to present evidence of rape in the courtroom during the trial.
"In many cases in Indonesia, however, women are blamed if they do not present evidence. Many rape cases here could turn victims into defendants because they cannot bring the evidence to court," she said.
If national laws failed to address women's interests, Rhonda, said, instances of human rights abuses and violence against women could be made into international cases.
"We can bring charges under the International Criminal Code (ICC). But the ICC usually only takes on special cases," Rhonda said. Victims could also take try to take advantage of the principle of universal jurisdiction, she said. This jurisdiction allowed a human rights violator from one country to be tried in another country, she said.
Publicity played an important role in taking human rights violators to court. "The mass media have a very important role to keep reporting violence against women to build public opinion," she said.
Komariah Emong, a professor at Bandung Padjadjaran University's School of Law, said the government had yet to fulfill its obligations to protect victims of violence. "The government does not seem to be aware that it is responsible for helping victims recover physically and emotionally after experiencing violence" she said.