It has been exactly 40 years since Indonesia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) through Law Number 7 of 1984. However, the implementation of CEDAW in Indonesia still faces a number of challenges.
This was explained by the Deputy Chair of the Kalyanamitra Foundation and representative of the CEDAW Working Group Indonesia, Rena Herdiyani, in a webinar entitled “40 Years of Indonesia’s Commitment to Eliminating Discrimination against Women: Achievements and Challenges”, Monday (22/7).
The first challenge is the lack of understanding of CEDAW for the executive, legislative, and judiciary at the national and local levels. Rena said that CEDAW, for example, is only understood by the executive, especially the Ministry of PPPA, but has not been understood by other ministries/institutions including the judiciary and the DPR.
The second challenge, there are still a number of laws and regulations both at the national and regional levels that are discriminatory against women. “Among them are the Marriage Law which still standardizes transgender between husband and wife, legalizes polygamy with conditions that are discriminatory against women and disabilities, and a number of regional regulations in several regions,” he said.
According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women’s records, there are 62 discriminatory regional regulations that control women’s bodies and are even highly discriminatory against sexual minority groups.
Third, CEDAW has not become an integrated part of policy implementation and institutionalized in every ministry/state institution. Fourth, systemic and systematic monitoring of the implementation of the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations has not been optimal and coordination across ministries/institutions is weak.
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Fifth, the change of government and new legislative members 2024-2029. “So that means we start from zero again. Maybe there are those in the government who already understand CEDAW but when there is a change of ministers, echelon officials who do not understand CEDAW then it starts again from zero, including members of the DPR who do not understand CEDAW or Law 7 84,” he explained.
He himself acknowledged that there were also many achievements in the implementation of CEDAW, especially in the last 4 years. For example, the issuance of policies that are in line with the principles of CEDAW, such as Permendikbudristek Number 30 of 2021 concerning the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence (PPKS) in Higher Education, Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning TPKS, Presidential Regulation Number 55 of 2024 concerning UPTD PPA, and others.
On the same occasion, National Commission on Violence Against Women Commissioner Rainy Hutabarat said that until now there are still women who are vulnerable groups in society.
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For example, girls who are vulnerable to Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM). He also pushed for the criminalization of all forms of FGM.
Another vulnerable group is female sex workers. They are considered to still experience stigma and discrimination, especially through regional regulations. According to Rainy, the government should focus on looking at the roots of the problem.
“Labeled in regional regulations (as) people with social problems, the same as HIV, including sexual minorities. “Generally in Indonesia, female sex workers are women who are prostituted due to structural conditions and family economic pressure,” he said.
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The next vulnerable groups are sexual minorities, women with HIV/AIDS, women workers, especially informal workers, women domestic workers, women workers with disabilities. Then indigenous women, women refugees abroad, and asylum seekers, she also encouraged the Ministry of PPPA to socialize CEDAW more intensively.
Acting Deputy for Gender Equality at the Ministry of PPPA Indra Gunawan said that his party continues to encourage efforts to fulfill women’s rights based on CEDAW recommendations. For example, accelerating the process of the Gender Equality Bill, criminalizing all forms of female genital mutilation, accelerating the adoption of the Sexual Violence Bill, and changing discriminatory provisions in Law No. 16/2019 concerning Marriage.
“It’s not just about how to make policies but of course also how to implement and monitor them that we need to strengthen in the future to ensure that these gender issues can reach the bottom, and can be implemented down to the lowest level,” he said. (H-2)
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