Commission of child protection needs wider coordination

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Supporters of children's rights and welfare have formed a national commission in a desperate bid for strong coordination with authorities to uphold the law.

In a brainstorming session held on Friday by the Directorate General on Human Rights Protection and the Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation (YKAI), participants underlined the need to create an effective body unlike other toothless national commissions.

YKAI chairwoman Lily I. Rilantono said the absence of strong coordination and integrated policies had hindered many commissions from carrying out their main mission.

"The commission on children's protection must have the power to lobby the government or make national policies that address children's needs and put them on its list of priorities. This power would ensure that integrated policies handle issues on children," she said.

Many commissions, in upholding human rights and anticorruption and pro-life campaigns, have been established, but they become ineffective because of the absence of a strong commitment and coordination among related sides to enforce the law.

Lily argued that the problems faced by children could no longer be handled by limited institutions since they are much more diverse than in past years. Problems range from child abuse, exploitation, neglect, mental and physical disabilities, to conflicts, criminals, drug abuse and exposure to HIV/AIDS.

"For example, to handle child prostitution, there needs to be strong coordination between the immigration office, the tourism office, the police and even the judiciary," Lily added.

The director general of Human Rights Protection at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Hafidz Abbas, agreed, saying that policies on child protection should be based on the principle of putting forward "the best interests of the child".

Using Bangladesh and Pakistan's experiences as an example, Hafidz said that the policies used to shut down factories employing children had created other problems for street children, such as child prostitution and trafficking.

A bill on children's protection will be passed into law on July 18 in observance of National Children's Day, which falls on July 23.

The bill regulates the independent Commission for Indonesian Children Protection (KPAI), which was established under a presidential decree. The commission will be based in Jakarta with no more than nine members from the government, religious organizations, NGOs and entrepreneurs.

Article 76 in the bill stipulates that the commission functions to promote the regulations and laws on children's protection, to gather data and information, to monitor the public's feedback, to analyze and supervise the implementation of protection for children, as well as to make reports and give suggestions to the President.

Surya Chandra, a legislator of the United Development Party, said that it would be a long time before the nation could form an independent commission to provide true protection for children.

"But for now, it's better to focus on the commission's priorities to intercept any complaints and input from the public on what should be done to protect children's rights. In that way, the commission will ensure the implementation of the United Nations' Convention on Child Protection that we signed in 1990," he said.