As DPR Speaker Puan Maharani promised at the time, the legislature would include the RUU TPKS’s approval on the agenda of the first plenary meeting of 2022.
By
KOMPAS EDITOR
·3 minutes read
BIRO PERS SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN
President Joko Widodo.
The support President Joko Widodo voiced for fast-tracking the endorsement of the Sexual Violence Eradication Bill has affirmed the government’s commitment.
The Sexual Violence Eradication Bill (RUU TPKS) has been debated since 2016. If technical matters are the only reason for the House of Representatives (DPR) leadership not to raise the bill during the plenary meeting on 16 Dec. 2021 to close the legislature’s second session for 2021-2022, it can be expected that the RUU TPKS will be approved by mid-January. As DPR Speaker Puan Maharani promised at the time, the legislature would include the RUU TPKS’s approval on the agenda of the first plenary meeting of 2022 (Kompas, 5/1/2022).
The next step is to exercise control to ensure that bill’s deliberation and endorsement are expedited. The issuance of a presidential decree, which tasks the Law and Human Rights Minister, the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister and the government task force to speed up discussions of the bill at the legislature signals that the endorsement of the RUU TPKS cannot be delayed any further. The legal vacuum cannot be ignored any longer.
Hopefully, the DPR’s internal political dynamics will contribute to expediting the process.
So far, the DPR has concurred with the government. That seven out of nine factions agreed to submit the RUU TPKS for approval at the DPR plenary meeting could be used as preliminary capital to accelerate deliberations over the RUU TPKS. Hopefully, the DPR’s internal political dynamics will contribute to expediting the process.
The task of monitoring the deliberation of the RUU TPKS belongs to us all. This is to ensure that not only will the bill’s deliberation be expedited, but also that it accommodates the demands of victims of sexual violence. This bill should be a legal umbrella that provides sufficient protection for victims of sexual violence.
The latest draft of the RUU TPKS that was approved by the House Legislation Body contains a number of improvements, including the rights of victims and victims’ families and an expanded definition of permissible evidence, but it still falls as regards the inclusion of several crucial matters. For instance, the procedural law in the draft bill does not specify the different types of sexual violence. The draft bill also omits provisions on rape, forced prostitution and abortion (Kompas, 10/12/2021). The process should be monitored to ensure that these provisions are accommodated in the RUU TPKS, because their omission could impact the efforts to protect victims and prevent sexual violence.
As sexual violence constitutes an extraordinary crime that must be handled by extraordinary means, revising the draft RUU TPKS is necessary. Accelerating the bill’s deliberation without sidelining public participation will be a wise step on the part of the government and the legislature.
The commitment of the government and the DPR, along with public supervision, will determine whether the deliberation of the RUU TPKS can be expedited to produce a law that stands as a comprehensive system to prevent and handle cases of sexual violence from the upstream to the downstream.
