Jakarta – Laws that permit polygamy for a man experiencing an infertile marriage or insist on the arrest of a woman seen outside after 7 p.m. because she is considered a prostitute are just two of 29 gender-biased laws Indonesia has been asked to revoke by an international anti-discrimination convention in New York.
The recent 39th meeting of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in New York has recommended Indonesia should revoke all its regulations that are biased against women.
As one of the countries that ratified the convention 23 years ago, Indonesia was given the chance to present its opinion on the implementation of the 28-year-old convention during the CEDAW New Yorkk meeting on July 27.
"There are currently 29 laws which are gender-biased and we have suggested the related ministries amend them," Indonesia's delegation head for the New York meeting Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono said.
"I have heard that they are still evaluating them." She cited the 1974 marriage laws, which contain articles that permit polygamy in the case of infertility.
Meutia, who is also the State Minister for Women's Empowerment, said her ministry had not yet received a response from the Religious Affairs Ministry, the leading sector for the amendment of the marriage laws.
She said the July meeting had also expressed concerns around the impact of the regional autonomy policy, which had created discriminative regulations against women.
The 2005 bylaw around Sharia implementation in Tangerang, Banten, stipulates any women in public after 7 p.m. would be considered a prostitute and arrested.
Meutia said the meeting also criticized the Indonesian government for its failure to fully integrate the CEDAW convention into Indonesian laws. The minister said this was because the CEDAW convention had yet to be familiarized among the government institutions.
She said the New York meeting also criticized the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment for its inability to play a significant role in imposing the CEDAW convention. "This relates to the ministry's limitation in human resources as well as financial sources." She said this could be settled if each related ministry realized the importance of a women's role in every sector of the government.
All criticisms from the meeting would be followed up gradually because they involved all sectors of the government, Meutia said.
Despite all the weaknesses in CEDAW implementation in Indonesia, the meeting appreciated several steps taken by the Indonesian government in implementing the convention.
"They noted some improvements like the issuance of the 1999 Law on Human Rights, the amendment to the 1945 Constitution, the 2004 Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence, the 2006 Law on Witness's and Victim's Protection and the 2007 Law on Human Trafficking."
Meutia also said Indonesia was credited for signing the CEDAW optional protocol in 2000 agreeing to CEDAW's supervisory role on the implementation of the convention.