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New Indonesian Parliament Urged to Tackle Sexual Violence 'Emergency'

Reuters

   KUALA LUMPUR - Lawmakers sworn into Indonesia's parliament on Tuesday
   are being urged to push through a sexual violence bill to protect women
   from abuse that rights groups say has reached "emergency" levels.

   Sexual violence is prevalent in the Southeast Asian country of 260
   million. Tens of thousands of people in recent weeks have protested
   against a proposed new criminal code that would outlaw sex outside
   marriage and penalize women who have abortions.

   Women's rights activists are also calling on newly installed lawmakers
   in the world's third-largest democracy to revive a bill shielding women
   from violence that for years has failed to pass parliament due to
   conservative opposition.

   Over 400,000 cases of violence against women, including domestic and
   sexual abuse, were reported in 2018 compared to nearly 280,000 in 2013,
   according to data compiled by the National Commission on Violence
   Against Women.

   "We want to see the bill passed by 2020 because we have waited for too
   long," Azriana Manalu, chairwoman of the government-backed commission
   which helped draft the legislation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
   by phone from Jakarta.

   The proposed bill seeks to expand the crime of sexual violence to
   include harassment, exploitation and forced abortions and forced
   prostitution.

   Conservative groups, including the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party
   (PKS), say the bill is "too liberal" since it does not penalize other
   sex-related acts such as adultery.

   "It [the bill] has the potential to promote free sex and deviant sexual
   behaviors," Jazuli Juwaini, a PKS lawmaker was quoted as saying by
   Indonesian news website Kompas in February.

   An online petition opposing the bill has received nearly 170,000
   signatures.

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