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.