Law Enforcement in Child Violence Cases Needs Strengthening

Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Lestari Moerdijat has stated that improvements are still needed in the resolution of child violence cases. She noted that the punishment of perpetrators has yet to succeed in breaking the cycle of violence. “Another issue is that the legal handling of perpetrators has not been able to fully break the chain of violence,” said Rerie, as she is familiarly known, during an online Denpasar 12 Forum Discussion on Wednesday (8/7). Furthermore, cooperation is required from all parties, from the central government to the community. The large number of child violence cases cannot possibly be resolved by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection alone. Therefore, building a multi-party ecosystem is the right path. Data from the Online Information System for the Protection of Women and Children (SIMFONI PPA) recorded approximately 11,900 cases in 2021. This figure rose to 19,628 cases in 2024, a significant increase of over 10 percent. “What must be observed is that this situation demands critical examination between the actual increase in violence and the realisation that this is an emergency situation,” she said. Rerie emphasised that all regulations, including Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning Sexual Violence Crimes and other rules, are already in place, but the challenge lies in ensuring that the derivative regulations of the law are properly elaborated. Ahead of National Children’s Day on 23 July 2026, Rerie invited the public to support a joint campaign to protect children, starting from strengthening protection and parenting patterns from the smallest unit, the family. “If Indonesian children are protected from now on, we will surely have a superior and competitive generation,” she concluded.