Indonesia Passes Bill of Criminal Act of Sexual Violence into Law
️Jakarta, MINA – The Indonesian House of Representatives has passed the Bill of Criminal Act of Sexual Violence (TPKS) in a plenary meeting chaired by House of Representatif’s Chair Puan Maharani.
Not only attended by members of the Council, this plenary session was also attended by various communities and women activists who support the Bill.
After hearing legislative body’s report regarding the discussion of the Bill. Puan stated to all factions that the approval of the factions related to the Bill.
“Can the Bill on the Crime of Sexual Violence be approved to be passed into law,” asked Puan on Tuesday as quoted from Liputan6.com.
“Agreed,” answered the participants of the session, which was greeted by applause from the participants.
Several trial participants from the women’s community seemed to have tears in their eyes after Puan tapped the ratification hammer.
Previously, Puan said, this plenary session will be a milestone in one of the community’s struggles.
“Today’s plenary session is a historic moment that the community has been waiting for. Today the TPKS Bill will be ratified and become evidence of the struggle for victims of sexual violence,” said Puan,
The TPKS Bill itself has been championed since 2016 and the discussion is quite dynamic, including various rejections.
Rape is not included in the TPKS. According to the Chair of the Working Committee on the TPKS Bill, Willy Aditya, the reason is that rape and abortion are not regulated in the draft TPKS Bill.
Willy said rape was regulated in another law, namely the Criminal Code (KUHP).
“Why don’t we include rape. One, because it is already in the Criminal Code. The RKUHP is more complete,” he said
However, according to him, rape is still listed as one of the other types of sexual violence in the TPKS Bill.
“Indeed, we do not include rape and abortion. Of the 9 types of sexual violence that we mentioned above, we mention rape and other types of sexual violence, those are below,” said Willy.
Meanwhile, according to Willy, abortion has also been regulated in another law, namely the Health Law. “Why don’t we include abortion. It’s in the Health Act. So, that’s enough,” explained Willy.
For that reason, Willy continued, Panja decided not to include the two types of sexual violence. “We don’t want one legal norm to be regulated in two laws, because there will be overlapping,” said Willy.
Meanwhile, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction member Almuzzammil Yusuf conveyed a mini-faction opinion regarding the reasons for the rejection of the TPKS Bill.
One of the points of rejection of PKS is that this TPKS Bill includes completely the types of Moral Crimes, namely all forms of Sexual Violence, Adultery, and Sexual Deviance, so that the discussion of this TPKS Bill does bot use one paradigm, namely Sexual Violence.
“The PKS faction is consistent in fighting for the TPKS Bill to regulate the prohibition and punishment of adultery and sexual irregularities as a form of moral crime. The norm of adultery in the Criminal Code has a narrow meaning so it cannot reach adultery committed by couples who are both not yet bound by marriage other parties,” said Almuzzammil.
The PKS faction also proposed to include a prohibition on sexual relations based on a deviant sexual orientation (LGBT)/Sexual Deviance in the TPKS Bill, by accommodating the punishment for perpetrators of sexual deviance, both for children and adults.
“Given the legal vacuum regarding LGBT regulations in Indonesia, because there is not a single positive law in Indonesia that explicitly prohibits LGBT behavior, legislators need to immediately regulate it,” he said. (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
