INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:

Fulfil the Rights of the Victims

Sarah Nurul Nalawati

The right to speak, the right to be heard, the right to heal, the right to be protected, and the right to be accepted in society are among the rights to life, to liberty, property, and security. Those are few of many rights we turn a blind eye to.

There were times when I refused to see, refused to listen, refused to speak, but I still allowed myself to think and feel that it is in the nature of humans that we should respect and love each other. So, I act. I've seen and heard so many cases about violence against women.They were raped, they were sexually abused, they were abandoned by their husbands, they were forced to quit the job after they were married, they were blamed for seducing. 

According to annual report issued by Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), there were 293,220 cases of violence against women throughout 2014 in Indonesia. It increased about 17,000 from 2013. The data was collected from cases handled by Religious Courts, affiliated institutions, and Komnas Perempuan itself. There were 1,094 cases handled by Komnas Perempuan either by direct meeting, phone, or e-mail reports throughout 2014. From the collected data of 1,094 cases directly received by Komnas Perempuan, the highest number occurred in domestic or personal realm by 788 with the domination of physical violence. Meanwhile, sexual violence dominated community realm by 71 cases.  These numbers keep increasing. These growing numbers are never good news. Also the numbers issued by Komnas Perempuan are based on the reports either by informants, witnesses, or victims. What about victims who choose to stay silent? That is why violence against women is like iceberg phenomenon. What makes it keep increasing? What makes people choose to stay silent?

The lack of awareness about violence against women or gender-based violence is believed to be one of the reasons why this is like iceberg phenomenon.  “Violence against women is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender‐based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” (Art. 3 a, Council of EuropeConvention on preventing and combating violence against women and domesticviolence)  In other words, it is the violence directed against women because you are women or the violence directed against you because of your gender. Besides the lack of awareness, it is also because the lack of trust in other people. Victims usually reluctant to tell their stories because they don't want it to be argued by someone who doesn't understand their situations. One of many examples is the law enforcers who have not enough gender perspective knowledge to handle gender-based violence. It is supported by the fact that women are still blamed for being raped and the case of psychological violence in domestic or personal realm is hard to proceed. On top of that, there are still bills that discriminated women, for instance there are more than 300 local bylaws, such as imposition of curfew for women, The Anti-Pornography and Porno-Action Bill, and Marriage Bill which are proved to limit women's freedom. For example, men are allowed to have more than one wife if their wives are sick, have disabilities, or couldn't give birth to a child. Yes, polygamy can lead to (or is) violence against women physically, psychologically, economically, and sexually.

The existing bill on anti domestic violence is accommodating, but does not cover victims’ rights and violence in non-marital relationships. Thus, Komnas Perempuan and affiliated institutions proposed draft bill on sexual violence against women to be prioritized in National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) 2016. This bill will include rape, sexual intimidation, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, trafficking, forced prostitution, sexual slavery, forced marriage, pregnancy, abortion, contraception and sterilization, sexual torture, sexually charged punishment, female circumcision, and sexual control.

The bill also seeks to focus not only on getting the perpetrators to be executed, but also on providing better protection and healing for victims. So far, victims have to struggle to heal by themselves or in some cases, the victims choose to give up and shut themselves from the world to avoid gossip. One of the victims told me that visible wound was easier to heal, but the wound inside needed more time and help to heal. It has to be put in attention because we cannot only focus on one thing and disregard other concerns. When we heard our friends or neighbours had an argument with their spouses, we reluctant to intervene because basically it was not our problems. But what if our simple interventions, like asking her what's wrong, if she needs help, and listening to her story, prevent further damage caused by that? Do we still choose to stay silent? Violence in general and violence against women in particular will not end by itself. Elimination of violence against women will not happen without our contribution to see, listen, and most of all to act. It will not ignore the fact that perpetrators must be punished. However, it is not only that, we should also consider the victims. Their sufferings are not our jokes because violence they have to deal with is not a joke.