Govt to establish commission to protect abused children
Govt to establish commission to protect abused children
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government, in accordance with the new law on child
protection, is preparing a commission that may be allowed to
bring abusive parents to justice.
"At present, parents who abuse, trade or neglect their
children can evade the law because their children cannot report
their cases to the police themselves," said Erna Sofwan Sjukrie,
a member of the National Ombudsman Commission.
In a roundtable discussion on the planned establishment of the
commission, which is to be called the Indonesian Commission for
Child Protection (KPAI), Erna said that so far, parents who sold
their children into prostitution could not be ensnared by the
law.
"Once we freed several children who were forced to work as
prostitutes. But when the parents of one of the children took her
and resold her to the pimp, the government could do nothing
because she was under her parents' custody," Erna said.
The discussion was jointly organized by the Indonesian
Children's Welfare Foundation (YKAI) and the Communication Forum
of Children's Development (FK-PPAI). Representatives of the
Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare, the Ministry of
Social Affairs, the State Minister of Women's Empowerment, and
non-governmental organizations attended the forum.
The participants agreed to formulate the tasks of the planned
commission, which will be based on Law No. 23/2002 on child
protection. The law stipulates, among others, that an institution
should exist that has the power to abrogate parental custody
rights in the case of child abuse.
"This planned commission has the opportunity to be the one to
do the job," said Lily I. Rilantono, president of YKAI. "And we
are trying to urge the government to give the commission the
legal power to do so."
Once the commission is established, anybody who witnesses
neighbors, relatives or friends abuse their children can report
to the commission, who will represent the abused children in
court.