Bill on child protection submitted for deliberation

JAKARTA (JP): A team of legislators proposed a child protection bill on Thursday for deliberation by the House of Representatives, which will regulate children's rights and punishment for persons or organizations who neglect them.

The draft, consisting of 12 chapters and 68 articles, will detail the obligations of parents, families, community and government toward children and complement Law No.39/1999 on human rights that mentions children's rights.

"Child protection should begin from the time before a child is born until they turn 18 years old ...," legislators' spokesman Junus Lamuda from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction said in the plenary session.

He further said that the 20 of the 68 articles would define children's rights.

"And 11 articles of the proposed draft will stipulate sanctions for any person or organization that violates those rights," Junus further underlined.

However, the form of punishment was not specified.

Early last year the government-sanctioned National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) finished drafting the child protection bill that would allow the commission to take over child custody from parents who allegedly neglected or abused them.

The draft, which was later discussed with the House, determined punishment for those committing crimes against children, such as physical abuse, rape and trafficking. The minimum penalty cited is nine years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 200 million.

The current proposed draft regulates protection of children's rights in education, health, and social affairs.

"In one of the chapters, we also assigned the National Commission for Child Protection as the body responsible for protecting childrens' rights as mentioned in the preceding chapters," Junus said.

Two articles of the proposed draft discuss children's identity and parentage and the position of children from an inter- religious marriage.

"The draft underlines parents', families', community's and the government's responsibilities to ensure the continuous protection of children," Junus remarked.

In the plenary session, legislators also proposed another bill on the law-making process that would integrate all regulations made both by the government and the House, particularly in terms of the process and substance of law making.

The draft bill, consisting of 11 chapters and 56 articles, aims to integrate all regulations made by the two state bodies.

"The proposed draft on the law-making process would integrate the House's internal regulations and presidential instructions on law-making into a single regulation that would be adhered to by the two state bodies," House spokesman Rustam Tamburaka from the Golkar Party faction said in the session.(dja)