The year 2009 marks the 11th anniversary of the creation of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, which was established by former president B.J. Habibie because of the lack of an institution specially tasked with providing legal assistance for women victims of violence.

The commission commemorated recently in a ceremony its more than a decade of struggle against injustice and violence against women, on the sidelines of which commission chairwoman Kamala Chandrakirana shared the journey, obstacles and future challenges of the organization with The Jakarta Post's Erwida Maulia.

Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Question: What do you think the commission has achieved during more than 10 years of its journey in defending the rights of women in Indonesia?

Answer: One of most concrete achievements is perhaps how we've managed to build a comprehensive understanding on what are the forms of violence against women. They can experience violence inside their households, amid conflict situations, or when seeking a job.

And it is in the past 10 years we've been able to unravel bitter things experienced by women in the previous 32 years (the era of the New Order regime), during which there had been no room for victims to tell of what had happened. The political system at that time was hardly democratic.

We, for example, have been able to document violence and discrimination experienced by women in 1965. We've met women aged 70 years or more, who have kept their mouths shut for over 40 years and endured detention without legal process for more than a decade; not to mention the stigma attached to them right up to now.

And another example is what happened in East Timor. The history of violence and military domination in East Timor has had its own impacts on women. The same things occurred in other regions dubbed as the Military Operation Areas; violence against women was committed in the name of the nation.

During the process we've also successfully built a methodology to monitor acts of violence against women, as well as abuses to their rights. We've managed to build a system, create instruments and develop a monitoring concept integrating efforts to help them recover from violence and empowering them.

In what terms women can now begin to enjoy their rights, and in what terms do they still have a long way to go?

What has been improving for the past 10 years is that a growing number of stakeholders, either in the public or government institutions, have begun to create system providing assistance for women victims of violence, as well as educating the public to prevent other violent acts in the future. Various organizations and institutions with diverse backgrounds, such as from the religious communities and student groups, have taken the initiative to do so. This makes us so proud and boosts our spirits (to continue defending women's rights).

We still, however, have a lot of things to do in term of our engagement with politics in this era of democracy. We've experienced a number of elections, which have been recognized as open processes, but the open space provided by democracy has been used by those competing to earn positions in the government.

Many discriminatory policies against women have been justified in the guise of moves to advance social, religious or ethnic identity by politicians having secured strategic positions in state institutions. These policies deploy certain religious interpretations, but are in fact discriminatory against women and prompted by short term political interests. They use morality to justify new regulations. In the end not only women are victims, but also the rest of the nation because such policies are against our Constitution. And the issuance of these policies have created other problems.

And what are the examples of such policies?

The most dramatic and recent ones are bylaws produced in Aceh which have been issued in the name of the implementation of Islamic sharia. The Acehnese administration has produced forms of punishments not recognized in our national legal system, such as stoning and caning, which are controversial in Aceh. The bylaws, however, have been endorsed because there are many political interests involved.

Then there is also the criminalization of some forms of social behavior deemed to be in violation of certain religious laws, such as what is called khalwat, whereby an unmarried woman is considered to be too close together with men who are not their close relatives in private places. This is not a crime, but is criminalized and the perpetrators can face caning as punishment.

Another discriminatory policy, though not as dramatic, is that it is mandatory for female Muslim civil servants to wear Islamic attire, which has taken effect in 16 regencies/municipalities in seven provinces: Aceh, West Java, Banten, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan. Although the majority of Indonesians are Muslims, there shouldn't be any policies violating individuals' rights to determine their identities.

These policies are among new problems emerging in the era of reform and democracy that would never have come about had the state apparatus understood and been committed to our Constitution.

So what do you think the government should do with such policies?

Firstly because we all live in a country named Indonesia, we are all bound to the social contract inscribed in the 1945 Constitution, one of whose main principles is nondiscrimination; equality before the law. Whether it is the central government or regional administrations, ordinary citizens or state apparatus, we all should always revert to the national Constitution. Neither special nor regular autonomy status and rules should contradict the national Constitution.

The central government has several roles to play in ensuring consistency between national laws and regional legal requirements. The Home Affairs Ministry, for example, can review bylaws before their endorsement, while the Supreme Court can revoke them had they been already issued through judicial reviews. The Constitutional Court can revoke discriminatory laws (at the national level, while the Justice and Human Rights Ministry is tasked with harmonizing all regulations and policies produced in Indonesia.

And what do you think are the future challenges for women?

In the future there are problems with our environment and economy, among others. This happens not only in Indonesia, but also at the global level. This demands women to be part of core decision-making forums.

If these forums are dominated by men, and have no women in substantial number with significant positions, then the outcomes produced will be effective only for half of the world's population. That would leave or create unsettled problems. So, in this context, the challenge for women is to become an integral part of leadership at both national and international levels to help solve the major problems faced by the world and our nation.