APSN Banner

National Commission on Violence Against Women calls for gender-just law enforcement officials in femicide cases

Source
Tempo - December 11, 2024

Iqbal Muhtarom, Dinda Shabrina, Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) released surveillance data on femicide cases from October 2023 to October 2024. As a result, in the past year, there have been 290 cases of femicide in Indonesia. Femicide is the murder of women based on their gender or gender identity.

Komnas Perempuan Commissioner Siti Aminah said that femicide cases have been quite high from year to year. The highest number of cases occurred in 2021-2022, with 307 cases. She added that this number does not fully represent the total number of femicide cases in Indonesia. Thus far, Komnas Perempuan does not possess comprehensive data on femicide.

"Therefore, this data cannot fully depict all femicide cases in Indonesia," said Ami, the nickname for Siti Aminah, during the online discussion of the '2024 Femicide Monitoring Report' on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.

Given the increasing number of femicide cases in recent years, Ami stated that there have been inquiries about the need for specific regulations to address femicide. However, Komnas Perempuan has not yet discussed this matter.

For Ami, the current priority is to increase discourse on femicide. Particularly, fostering a gender-just perspective among all law enforcement officials who will continue to face and handle these cases.

"We are still in the process of building a discourse on femicide, encouraging all parties to prevent femicide, and urging all parties to establish a national system," said Ami. Another priority for Komnas Perempuan is to establish a data system on femicide. As of now, there is no specific documentation on femicide cases in Indonesia.

Although there are no specific regulations on femicide, Ami emphasized the need for law enforcement officials to activate their gender-just sensitivity and recognize the importance of accommodating the rights of femicide victims. Femicide is not an ordinary murder.

Hence, she advocates for an understanding of gender justice, the concept of the Law on Sexual Violence Crimes (UU TPKS), the Law on Prevention and Elimination of Domestic Violence (UU PKDRT), and other related regulations intertwining with femicide to be well-understood by law enforcement officials.

She also explained that under the UU TPKS, there is an article stating that if a victim of sexual violence subsequently dies, the perpetrator's sentence is increased by one-third. "Likewise, if the victim originally experienced domestic violence, the perpetrator will face Article 44 verses 3, which results in death," she said.

Gender-just sensitivity in law enforcement, according to Ami, can uncover the hardships women faced before losing their lives. These experiences should be taken into account and considered by law enforcement officials so that harsher penalties can be imposed on the perpetrators. She hopes all parties can collectively educate law enforcement officials on this gender-just sensitivity.

"In reality, power dynamics, losses, need to be explored, including the possibility of restitution or not, and if restitution is not pursued, compensation for the victim's family should be sought. It already exists. However, the perspective is still limited, it is only used for domestic violence, for sexual violence or violence against children," said Ami.

Law enforcement officials with a gender-just perspective should be able to utilize existing laws to provide justice to the victims. "The victims here can be the people left behind, children, or family. It should be noted that femicide victims are not only women who die by murder, but also the close individuals who depend on the victim are part of the victims," said Ami.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1951334/national-commission-on-violence-against-women-calls-for-gender-just-law-enforcement-officials-in-femicide-case

Country