The Law on Sexual Violence Crimes (, abbreviated as "UU TPKS") is a law aimed to tackle sexual violence in Indonesia. The bill of the law was proposed on January 26, 2016. The law focuses on the prevention of sexual violence, more rights for victims and to acknowledge marital rape.
Although it was dropped from discussion July 2020 by People's Representative Council because of "difficulties" to discuss it further, the bill subsequently made its way back to People's Representative Council discussion in January 2021. Originally known as Elimination of Sexual Violence Bill (, abbreviated as "RUU PKS"), the bill name was renamed as Bill on Sexual Violence Crimes (, abbreviated as "RUU TPKS") on 9 February 2021, due to political reason and "convenience", likely due to the name of bill have a connotation with a party with same abbreviation.
The bill finally enacted by People's Representative Council on 12 April 2022, completed 8 years process of the legislation. The law signed by Joko Widodo on 9 May 2022.
Legislative history.
The urge of formulation law to eliminate sexual violence had been discussed since 2012 by the National Commission for Eradication of Violence against Women (, often abbreviated as ). However, the plan finally was realized in 2014 after Joko Widodo came into presidency after the reported the need for the formulation to him.
The drafters and supporters of this bill are the Komnas Perempuan and the Service Provider Forum ("Forum Pengada Layanan", FPL). and they began to work in 2014. The Chairperson of Komnas Perempuan at that time, Azriana, said on September 7, 2015, that there were at least 15 kinds of sexual violence experienced by women in Indonesia, namely acts of rape, intimidation of sexual nuances (including rape threats or attempts), sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced contraception/sterilization, sexual torture, sexual punishment, and sexual control, including discriminatory rules based on morality and religion. 13 of them have not been regulated by law.
This bill was proposed on January 26, 2016. Komnas Perempuan submitted the academic text of the PKS bill to the Indonesian People's Representative Council ("Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat", DPR) on May 13, 2016. The bill was included in the 2016 Priority Prolegnas ("Program Legislasi Nasional", National Legislation Program) on June 6, 2016. This bill was withdrawn from the 2020 Priority Prolegnas on July 2, 2020. This withdrawal was submitted by Commission VIII. Deputy Chairperson of Commission VIII Marwan Dasopang said it was difficult to discuss the bill at this time because of the clash on the definition of sexual violence and the rules of punishment. According to a member of Commission VIII from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction Diah Pitaloka, the decision to remove this bill from the Prolegnas was not a statement from Commission VIII, as it was Marwan Dasopang's personal statement. According to Diah, despite being withdrawn from the 2020 Prolegnas, the PKS Bill will enter the 2021 Prolegnas which will be discussed by the Legislation Body of the People's Representative Council ("Badan Legislasi Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat", Baleg). The bill subsequently made its way back to People's Representative Council discussion in January 2021.
Contents.
The UU TPKS does not only regulate procedural law and criminal sanctions regarding sexual violence, but also regulates benefits for victims of sexual violence. In its bill form, according to the Director of the Legal Aid Institute ("Lembaga Bantuan Hukum", LBH) APIK, Veny Octarini Siregar, the RUU PKS covers everything from prevention, fulfillment of victims' rights, recovery of victims to regulating handling during the legal process. The PKS Bill is considered to be a special law or "lex specialis". The justice system will be made like juvenile justice. Victims can choose to meet or not meet with the perpetrators, and victims are placed in a special room during the trial. This bill also regulates the role of the community, such as actions taken by "rukun tetangga" or "rukun warga". This bill charges the perpetrator to pay restitution not as compensation to the victim, but to bear the costs of the victim's recovery. There are nine forms of sexual violence described in this bill, namely sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, forced contraception, forced abortion, rape, forced marriage, forced prostitution, sexual slavery and sexual torture.
As the law published, in the law form (not the bill form), eventually the sexual violence list is expanded to cover 19 forms.
Described Crimes.
According to the law, there are 19 forms of sexual violence worth to be punished by this law. Each form may have specific crimes listed as part of the said form. The listed crimes are:
Aside of the 19 forms, there are crimes listed as "sexually violent associated crime" (Art. 19). Included to the list are:
Additional Penalties.
The Article 15 of the law also provided additional penalty with the addition of 1/3 penalty if the sexual violence act(s) are committed under certain circumstances:
The Article 16 of the law also provided additional penalty to perpetrator to:
The Article 18 of the law also provided additional penalty to the corporation, if a corporation involved in sexual violence crime(s):
Reactions.
Chairman of the Indonesian Feminist Lawyer Clubs (IFLC) Nur Setia Alam Prawiranegara said the discussion of this bill was hampered "because this bill does not generate a lot of money. It is different from the election bill, which may have a clear circulation of money." In addition, Member of the People's Representative Council Commission VIII Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo admitted that there was no agreement on the PKS Bill between legislators and PKS Bill supporters. According to Saras, some parties consider the PKS Bill to be a regulation that justifies the existence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), and some think that this bill comes from foreign interests, even though the drafters and supporters of this bill are Komnas Perempuan and FPL. who are assisting victims of violence in Indonesia.
A petition on Change.org urging the DPR and government to discuss the PKS Bill was signed by more than 50,000 netizens on May 6, 2016. On December 8, 2018, people from various alliances held a grand parade demanding that the government immediately pass the PKS Bill. The hashtag #sahkanruupks (Sign the PKS Bill) has become the most popular post on Twitter. The editor-in-chief of "Jurnal Perempuan", Anita Dhewy, thinks that the ratification of the PKS Bill is urgent, especially after victims of sexual harassment in Indonesia have the courage to speak up after the emergence of the Me Too movement. Marwan Dasopang said that there were still many things that the DPR had to consider, such as interrogations that had to be coordinated with the police, the use of the title "Elimination of Sexual Violence" which could lead to various interpretations, the use of the word sexual desire which could be interpreted as same-sex desire. According to him, the existing regulations are sufficient to deal with acts of sexual violence.
In a series of demonstrations and riots that took place in Indonesia in September 2019 by Indonesian students and journalists, one of the demonstrators' demands was to immediately pass the PKS Bill. During the Indonesia omnibus bill protests in July 2020, protesters also demanded the passing of PKS Bill.
The bill was rejected by Islamic hard-liners, claiming that the law is legalizing "zina", pro-LGBT, and pro-abortion proponed by Maimon Herawati (a lecturer of Department of Journalism, Padjadjaran University) and Farah Qoonita (an Islamist woman activist and Instagram influencer). However, Indonesian Criminal Code already prohibited "zina" in Article 284 of the Indonesian Criminal Code. Despite misleading people with her own interpretation of the bill, Maimon insisted that her view is permissible by Indonesian democracy system. Although her stance given attention to Islamic populists, her stance also resulted on her to be jeered and mocked by other Indonesians as well.
The only party that against the law is Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), in which the party insisted to a more religious (mostly based on hard-line Islamic fiqh interpretation) and "comprehensive approach" to criminalize all consensual but non-violent sexual relationship and "deviant sexual acts", not only sexual violent acts. Mike Verawati, an Indonesian woman activist, stated that the party intention to include these acts are irrelevant with the law designed for. She also added that, if the PKS views and conditions included and accommodated to the law, marriages outside Islamic marriage will be outlawed as counted as "zina" due to not met Islamic standard.
References.
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