RETNO MARSUDI CONFERRED AGENT OF CHANGE AWARD BY UN WOMEN by Fardah

Jakarta, Sept 21, 2017 (Antara) - Retno L. P. Marsudi, Indonesia's first-ever woman foreign affairs minister, has been recognized as an inspirational and phenomenal figure as well as a role model by UN Women, an organization of the United Nations (UN).

        Marsudi's hard work and sincere dedication to the nation and humanity globally received due recognition when UN Women bestowed the Agent of Change Award for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment on her.

        Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Lakshmi Puri, concurrently the assistant UN secretary general, presented the award during a luncheon held at the UN Headquarters in New York, the US, on the sidelines of the 72nd UN General Assembly (UNGA) Session.

        Puri of India, in her speech, said Minister Marsudi has become an inspiration and a role model for women in Indonesia and globally.

        Under the leadership of Marsudi, the Indonesian foreign ministry has promoted gender equality regionally and globally, she remarked.

        "She has also been in the spotlight regionally and globally for conducting sensitive diplomacy in the region, including in the context of Myanmar," Puri pointed out.

        This year, other recipients of the UN Women's Agents of Change Awards are President of Chile Michele Bachelet Jeria, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Margot Wallström, and Chairwoman of the General Women's Union of the UAE Sheikha Fatima binti Mubarak.

        The award is bestowed to recognize women leaders in public office for their pioneering work in achieving gender equality and women's empowerment across the globe.

        "Thank God, what Indonesia has done so far in humanitarian diplomacy and peace has been recognized by the world," Minister Marsudi stated after receiving the award.

INDONESIA CONTEMPLATING SEVERE PUNISHMENT PLUS CHIP IMPLANT FOR SEXUAL OFFENDERS by Fardah

Jakarta, May 13, 2016 (Antara)- The news of a 14-year-old girl Yuyun, who was gang raped and murdered in Bengkulu Province, was followed by similar horrific incidents being reported from various regions in Indonesia.

         Many of the sex crimes had initially been ignored or almost forgotten, but information about them has surfaced due to public outcry following Yuyun's case.

         The gang rape and murder of the eighth grader took place in Bengkulu village on April 2 as 14 men aged between 16 and 23 years abducted the girl while she was heading home from school.

          The schoolgirl's bound body was found two days later in a ravine in a rubber plantation. Yuyun is believed to have died while being raped by the accused, who were said to be in an inebriated state.

          In East Lampung District, Lampung, a 10-year-old girl identified by the initials MS was gang raped and strangled to death by two men in an empty hut away from her home, on April 14, this year, though some reports claim that 10 men were part of the crime.

          MS's body was found in the hut on April 17 after her parents had reported her missing.

PORNOGRAPHY, ALCOHOL USAGE ENCOURAGING SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN RI: MINISTER By Fardah

Jakarta, May 12 (Antara)- The death of 14-year-old Yuyun after being raped by 14 teenagers in Rejanglebong District, Bengkulu Province, has sparked a public outcry across the country, and demands for a death penalty for the perpetrators.

         On May 4, at least 200 people gathered in Jakarta to protest the violence against women, as the Yuyun murder case is being compared with opening a `Pandora's Box' on the increased number of sexual assaults against women and children in the country.

         The gang rape and murder of the eighth grader took place on April 2 as she was snatched by the 14 men aged between 16 and 23, on her way home from school.

         The schoolgirl's bound body was found two days later in a ravine in a rubber plantation. She is believed to have died while being raped by the accused, who were said to be in an inebriated state.

WOMEN CIVIL SERVANTS WITH INFANTS MIGHT HAVE LESSER WORKING HOURS by Fardah

      Jakarta, Dec 8, 2014 (Antara) - The government is planning to reduce the working hours of women civil servants with infants to give them more time to tend to family matters.
    Currently, every Indonesian civil servant has to work eight hours a day, but if the government's plan is implemented, then female workers having infants will have to work only six hours a day.
   The reduction of working hours will only be applicable to female civil servants having children below six years of age.
   "Thus, this is not applicable to all (female civil servants)," Minister for State Apparatuses and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi recently stated.