Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A coalition of children and women's rights groups staged a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Sunday calling for more severe punishments for child abusers.
Participants at the rally, most of whom were women and children, also called for more support for victims of sexual abuse.
The coalition, led by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), urged the government and the House of Representatives to improve child protection measures, for example by amending Law No. 23/2002 on child protection to set a minimum prison sentence of 20 years for child abuse.
"The current law only stipulates between three and 10 years' imprisonment for child sex abusers. This is unreasonable. Perpetrators should be sentenced to at least 20 years for the suffering they cause to victims," Arist Merdeka Sirait of Komnas PA said.
Arist added that his commission and other rights watchdogs would forward this proposal to House Commission III on laws and human rights, as well as to relevant government ministries.
"Other than suitable legal protection, the government must also create a comprehensive system to prevent future sexual abuse against all children in the country. We don't want the same fate as Indonesia's to befall other children here," Arist said, referring to an 11-year-old girl who died last week after suffering severe vaginal and rectal injuries apparently due to repeated sexual assaults.
Participating in the rally on Sunday was Permadi Ramono, a lawyer for Indonesia's family, who said his team would be filing a lawsuit against the perpetrator. "The perpetrator is guilty of rape as well as of violating a child. My team and I are still working on the case," he said.
When asked about the ongoing police investigation, Permadi said that only one man, who was close to the victim's family and who was identified only by the initial R, was being questioned.
The coalition also said that there had been an increase in the number of sexual abuse cases, especially among the country's impoverished population.
Data from the coalition shows that in 2010, there were 2,426 child abuse cases, of which 42 percent involved sexual violence. The figure rose to 2,509 in 2011, 58 percent of which were sexual.
Looking at the trajectory, the coalition has declared 2013 as a year of emergency regarding sexual crimes. "It is high time to create a system to protect Indonesian children and afford solidarity among victims of sexual abuse," the coalition said in a statement.
The death of Indonesia marks only the latest case of child rape that may well have resulted in no legal action being brought against the perpetrator.
In October last year, a teenager in Depok, West Java, who was reportedly kidnapped and repeatedly raped by a Facebook "friend", was expelled from school,
The 14-year-old girl, identified only as SAS, returned for classes at her school after a one-month absence following her traumatic ordeal, only to be told to return home as the school "could no longer accept a student that has tarnished the school's image".
In September, a female passenger RS, 27, was gang-raped when traveling at night on a KWK D-02 minivan plying the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route.
Two weeks later, the victim managed to spot one of the rapists and tipped off police who then arrested him.