Children Need More Protection

A number of regulations have been made and child protection campaigns have also been regularly promoted, but all of these are still not enough to protect children from sexual violence.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Child protection campaign mural on the walls of residents' houses in the Cinere area, Depok, West Java, Monday (20/7/2020).

The case of sexual abuse of 15 children in Serang regency, Banten, which was revealed recently (Kompas, 22/11/2022), adds to the long list of cases of sexual violence against children in the country. This indicates that children are very vulnerable to sexual violence by the adults around them.

Based on data from the National Police Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), sexual violence dominated the cases of 2,267 children who became victims of crime in January-May 2022. Data from the Online Information System for the Protection of Women and Children (Symphony) in 2021 shows that out of 11,952 cases of violence against children, 7,004 cases (58.6 percent) were cases of sexual violence. Most of the perpetrators were adults around the children including parents and relatives, who are supposed to protect them.

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> Protect the Children

From the regulatory aspect, numerous laws and regulations have been made to protect children, starting from Law No. 4/1979 concerning Child Welfare, the ratification of the UN convention on the Rights of the Child, to Law No. 23/1990 concerning Child Protection. Related parties have also been involved to protect children as in the Child-Friendly District/City Program.

However, they are not enough to protect children from sexual violence. The sexual abuse against 15 children occurred in a regency that has received awards as a child-friendly regency three times.

IVAN DWI KURNIA PUTRA

Children cheer before the coloring competition starts in the Mardani Asri Child-Friendly Integrated Public Space (RPTRA), Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, Sunday (20/11/2022) in commemoration of World Children's Day 2022.

Child protection must be strengthened, and for this reason, concrete action by the state is needed from upstream to downstream, from the families, where the children live, to law enforcement. Strengthening family resilience should be the beginning of efforts to protect children because the family is the main source of a child's education, including sex education.

Starting from the family, children receive education such as how to value and respect their bodies, regarding behaviors that demean and threaten them, to protect themselves. As urged by UNESCO, there should be comprehensive sex education in formal education such as in schools.

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> Orphaned Children Must Be Protected

In the aspect of law enforcement, the state must act through law enforcers in favor of the victim.

The death penalty given to a perpetrator of sexual violence against dozens of children in Bandung at the end of 2021, while it was the maximum sentence, was considered not to have had a deterrent effect, nor had it been in favor of the victims.

The victims remain to be the party that suffer and lose the opportunity to develop and they even become a victim again (re-victimization) because of the negative stigma attached to victims of sexual violence. The victim's right to restitution has not been fully fulfilled. All these tasks should be done in order to protect the nation's future.

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.