Jakarta – The government should upgrade its ratification of the Convention of Rights of the Child (CRC) from a presidential decree to a law in order to better protect children, says a report by the National NGO Coalition for Child Rights Monitoring.
"The 1945 Constitution and the 2002 Child Protection Law have not yet given children their full rights," said Setiawan Cahyo Nugroho from Save the Children, one international NGO in the coalition. "Only by implementing the CRC, will the rights of the children be fully realized," he added.
There are several rights that are not accommodated by the child protection law. They are children's rights to be heard in court for adoption and guardianship cases, rights to freedom of religion and the right to rehabilitation if they are victims of violence or discrimination.
Cahyo said the child protection law failed to protect children who were victims of violence at the hands of government officials. "Public order officers who attack street children are never punished," he said.
Last year, public order officers in several cities rounded up street children and subjected them to physical examinations on the back of criminal cases where the suspects admitted to raping homeless boys. The examinations were deemed as "humiliating" by a number of organizations.
The review report was a preliminary publication before the Alternative Reports on the Implementation of the Children Rights Convention.
Masnah Sari, the chairwoman of the Commission for Indonesian Child Protection (KPAI), said the CRC did not need to be upgraded to a law. "The 2002 Child Protection Law is sufficient," she said.
She said, in terms of the fulfillment of children's rights, there were several sectors in which those fulfillments were still lacking. "Indonesia is not a developed country, thus the welfare of the children has not yet been fulfilled, one example is the welfare of street children" she said.
She also mentioned several other sectors in which children had not fully received their rights, such as the right to education and health. The government should provide a social security scheme for children as well, she said.
The NGO coalition is scheduled to launch the review report and initiate dialogue between the coalition, Indonesian children and the government on May 25 and 26. The event will comprise a dialogue for the future of Indonesian children, documentation of children consultation and an exhibition of children's art at Taman Ismail Marzuki. The exhibition will display works by 350 children, representatives of vulnerable groups from 10 provinces. (map)