SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN STILL RAMPANT IN INDONESIA by Fardah

Jakarta, Nov 23 (Antara) - Nearly 25 years ago, a global promise was made to uphold and protect the rights of children at all costs to ensure their all-round growth and well-being, so that they achieve their maximum potential.

        The pledge was marked with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the UN General Assembly on 20 November, 1989.   
   The Children's Rights Convention stipulates four general principles: non-discrimination, the child's best interests, their right to life, survival, and development, and respect for their views.

         "We will do everything in our power to protect and promote their rights to survive and thrive, to learn and grow, to make their voices heard, and to reach their full potential," according to the UN on the occasion of Universal Children's Day 2014.

         So, 25 years following the adoption of the CRC, the big question still remains whether the world now is a better place for children. The United Nations Children's Funds (UNICEF) clearly stated that the world community must do more to protect children, particularly in conflict-ridden areas such as in Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

       Therefore, while observing Universal Children's Day on Nov. 20, 2014, the UN called on all nations to recommit themselves to advancing the rights of every child, especially those who have been overlooked.

       "We cannot say that the rights of all children are fulfilled when, despite our progress, some 6.3 million children under 5 years of age died in 2013, mostly from preventable causes; while 168 million children aged 5 to 17 were engaged in child labor in 2012, and 11 percent of girls are married before they turn 15," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted in his message on Universal Children's Day 2014.

        Ban emphasized that all children are entitled to their rights.

        "Every child has the right to survive and thrive, to be educated, to be free from violence and abuse, to participate, and to be heard," he remarked.

        In Indonesia, Universal Children's Day was also observed by an NGO called Childcare Advocacy Network, to reaffirm its commitment to protect and push for children's rights in line with Presidential Decree Number 36/1996.

          The function was attended by representatives of the Jakarta Legal Aid (LBH Jakarta), the National Alliance of National Diversity in Unity, the Indonesia Conference on Religion and Peace, the Rehabilitation Foundation, and the Task Force for Protection of Children, among others.

         "Hundreds of children from across the country participated in the celebration. We encourage them to strengthen and motivate each other and play together," Nia Sjarifudin, the coordinator of the National Children's Day celebrations, noted on Nov. 22, 2014.

         The commemoration, which marked the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the CRC, was held to express solidarity towards forgotten and abandoned children who have become victims of the community or state policies.

         "(They included) disabled children, those who were displaced because of forced evictions, those from very poor families or the victims of discrimination based on their religion, such as Ahmadiyah, Syiah-Sampang, Animism, and GKI Yasmin-HKBP Filadelfia, and the children in refugee camps," she stated.

         Nia Sjarifudin claimed that the system has not paid attention to these children who are not offered optimal protection for their growth.

        The coordinator hoped that the commemoration could help to protect the children who face discrimination in this country.

        The condition of children in Indonesia has been rather gloomy, given the fact that during the past four years, from 2010 to 2014, some 21,689,797 cases involving violence against children were reported in 34 provinces and 179 districts and cities.

       Of the reported cases, 62 percent of them were related to sexual abuse, while the rest comprised physical violence, neglect, abduction, economic exploitation, trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, and custody disputes.

        The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) had received as many as 2,726 reports related to violence against children during the period between January and September, this year.

        "The reports concern complaints related to sexual assaults and abandonment," Chairman of Komnas PA Arist Merdeka Sirait recently revealed in Jakarta.

        In some 58 percent of the sexual assault cases against children, the acts were committed by people who were supposed to protect the victims, he pointed out.

         In 2013, the commission received 3,339 reports on violence against children, wherein 16 percent of the perpetrators were children below 14 years of age, he revealed.

         Of the 2,726 violence-related cases reported during the first nine months of this year, 26 percent were committed by children below 14 years of age, which is a 10 percent increase from that recorded last year, Sirait pointed out.

         "It is very scary. While we can suppress adult perpetrators, we see that the number of child perpetrators, in fact, has increased," he remarked.

         To prevent such crimes from occurring in the future, the chairman of the commission proposed that efforts to spread sexual education among children should be intensified, so that they are well-informed about their anatomy and have knowledge on how to protect themselves.

        "Teens must be introduced to ways to protect and guard their sexual organs," Sirait stated.

          He also called for the implementation of school curricula that promote children's participation to develop not just their intellectual quotient but also their emotional and spiritual quotients. 
   The NGO activist also suggested that every grass root level community should set up a child protection group that could facilitate rapid response to any case of violence reported against children in their neighborhood.

        In order to deter child sexual abusers, Merdeka Sirait suggested chemical castration for the perpetrators of such heinous crimes.

         "Sexual violence committed on children is a humanitarian crime, and so, its perpetrators must be given equal punishment or a maximum sentence of minimally 20 years in jail, in addition to castration," he emphasized.

        He noted that South Korea has already implemented punishment by castration through the use of chemical injections, while Malaysia and Turkey are planning to implement it.

        "Castration is an additional punishment that the judge gives, besides a physical sentence, and Indonesia could implement it to reduce its sexual crime rate, which has been increasing from year to year," he stated.

        Sirait also expressed disappointment that the proposal for implementing castration of sexual abusers has received poor response from the House Commission VIII.

       "Response from the House of Representatives towards the amendment of Law Number 23 of 2002 on Child Protection has only increased the minimum sentence by three to five years in jail, while the maximum penalty remains at 15 years in jail," he remarked.

         He noted that the punishment doled out to child sexual abusers must provide justice to its victims when the requirements have been met to punish adult perpetrators.

       "We think the present law on child sexual abusers has not yet provided justice, as it is still very lenient, such as in cases where no witnesses were presented, the perpetrators could be released," he affirmed.

        Sirait was also of the viewpoint that child abuse cases would continue to increase in Indonesia as the country does not yet have an effective child protection management system in place to handle crimes on juveniles.

        "The country only has a child protection management system but has no national scale reference for reducing and handling cases of children who become crime victims," he earlier said.

        He revealed that his side had encountered varied difficulties in tracing references for the recovery of child crime victims' health and psychological disturbances due to the lack of data furnished by government agencies.

         "We hope the new government under President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla would build a national protection system regulated through a law by passing a government regulation in lieu of the law and other regulations," Sirait added.

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(f001/INE)
EDITED BY INE