Jakarta – The government has made no significant progress toward implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 23 years after its ratification, women's rights advocates say.

"We haven't seen any concrete action from the government regarding the elimination of discrimination against women," Rena Herdiyani, executive director of the Kalyanamitra women's group, said in a conference on CEDAW on Tuesday.

She said that even though the government had taken some minor steps toward eliminating discrimination against women in Indonesia, "(Women) have yet to benefit from it."

"Most laws, such as the 1974 Marriage Law and the 1992 Health Law, still contain articles that discriminate against women," Rena said. The marriage and health laws contain articles that permit polygamy in the case of infertility and ban the distribution of information on reproductive health to unmarried people.

Rena said the two laws require urgent revision, but that the government had not shown any willingness to amend them. "The process is moving along slowly. Take for example the Marriage Law that was sent into the legislature in the early 1990s but has yet to be finished," she said.

On July 27, Indonesia will present a review of its implementation of the convention at a CEDAW committee session in New York which runs from July 23 to Aug. 10.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, criticized the State Minister for Women's Empowerment, insisting she had failed to effectively campaign for gender equality in the legislature. "This minister cannot even influence other ministers, let alone the legislature," she said.

Eva said that the majority of women politicians in the House of Representatives had failed to assist in facilitating the implementation of the convention.

"There has been no systematic campaign to make legislators aware that they have a special assignment in monitoring the implementation of CEDAW," she said.

From among the 62 women legislators at the House, only 20 percent adhered to the feminist premise of gender equality, she said. "The others, they are women in appearance only, but their perspectives are not women-oriented," Eva said.

She added, however, that this was not completely their fault as their respective parties had not educated them on the fact that gender equality was an ideological mandate. "No wonder the House as an institution has yet to achieve a strong commitment for gender equality," she said.