Ronna Nirmala – The Constitutional Court on Thursday partially revised a law governing how juvenile offenders should be tried in court, but child rights campaigners say it is not enough.

At issue in the judicial review of the 1997 Juvenile Offenders Law, filed by the Indonesian Commission for Child Protection (KPAI), were six articles on the indictment and incarceration of minors that the plaintiffs deemed unconstitutional.

The activists said the articles violated children's constitutional right to "live, grow, develop and be protected from violence and discrimination."

However, the court only approved changes to two of the articles, effectively raising from 8 to 12 the minimum age at which a minor may face criminal charges.

Chief Justice Mahfud M.D. said this change was in line with international laws governing child rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He also said the court had decided to leave the four articles on incarceration untouched because they were not considered unconstitutional.

"Those articles deal with how to handle juvenile offenders after they have been convicted of a crime, namely through imprisoning them," he said.

"Every crime must have its punishment, and the same principle applies to minors, so that's why we have juvenile detention centers.

"As for the violence the occurs within these centers, that can be attributed to technical issues but not to the law that governs the detention of juvenile offenders," Mahfud said. "There are officials elsewhere who are responsible for dealing with those issues."

Apong Herlina, a KPAI commissioner, said she was disappointed with the ruling.

"We're talking about the future of our children," she said. "The stigma attached to being a former convict stays with them forever and haunts them for the rest of their lives."

She added that over the past 10 years, around 7,000 minors had faced criminal charges, most of whom were detained alongside adult suspects for the duration of their trials.

"There are no separate areas in police holding cells for children," Apong said. "These children are thus forced to sleep and interact with adult detainees who often have bigger problems than them."

She added the KPAI wanted children facing trial to be kept at rehabilitation centers or places that were "safe for them in psychological terms."

She also said there was no need to lock up juvenile offenders if other avenues of discipline, whether religious, tribal or cultural, were readily available.

Apong said that from the ages of 8 to 13, children are at their most psychologically vulnerable. For this reason, she argued, they should be allowed to stay with their parents rather than being carted off to detention centers.

Apong added the commission's campaign to change the 1997 Juvenile Offenders Law would not be halted by the Constitutional Court's latest decision.

"We'll still keep campaigning on this issue," Apong said. "We'll be back at the Constitutional Court sooner or later to discuss this in greater depth with the judges and hopefully we'll be able to find a fair solution to the issue."