Cases of violence against women have recorded a two-fold increase to reach 4,500 as of September 2021 compared to 2020, the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has informed.

In a press statement released here on Monday, Komnas Perempuan’s commissioner, Andy Yentriyani, said that survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault still faced criminalization in 2021.

“The increasing report of violence against women cases were not handled well because it does not match with the handling capacity,” she noted.

According to Yentriyani, there is an urgent need for handling the incidence of sexual violence, not just because of the increasing number of cases, or the complexity or the extremity of the cases. But because the handling capacity is not yet adequate for all entire regions, she said.

“The difficulty women victim encountered to receive justice became the foundation for the sexual violence prevention bill,” she added.

Meanwhile, a professor from the University of Indonesia, Sulityowati Irianto, said that Indonesia requires legal instruments to protect women from violence.

However, in practice, many regional policies are discriminative and go against the needs of the people, she added.

In addition, Indonesian people’s legal literacy remains lacking, which results in many problems during the process of legal product creation, she said.

For instance, the public still has many misconceptions regarding the contents of the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministerial Regulation No 30 of 2021 concerning the prevention of sexual violence in universities.

Sexual violence occurs because of the lack of consent and power relations between parties, she stressed. These two elements have to be addressed in order to eradicate sexual violence, she said.

Meanwhile, the normalization of sexual violence happens because the people are not aware of the issues women face surrounding such violence, which slows down the process of handling cases of violence against women, she added.

The people’s behavior is the best support for the victim’s recovery and access to justice for victims of violence, the Komnas Perempuan commissioner added.

Source: Antara News