Overhaul on child abuse law urged

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian law on child sexual abuse is not adequate to handle the increasing rate of the crime, experts said yesterday.

Irwanto, a senior researcher specializing in the problem of street children at Atmajaya Catholic University, said the definition of child abuse in the Criminal Code is biased because the age limit for sexual consent is 15, while the Marriage Law stipulates that the minimum age for women to get married is 16.

"The Criminal Code covers only women and adult victims and perpetrators, because it does not speak clearly about child abuse. The law is too broad," Irwanto told The Jakarta Post during breaks at a seminar on child abuse here yesterday.

The seminar was sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association.

Irwanto also said that victims of sexual abuse usually harassed further because investigating police officers often disbelieve their reports.

"Worse still, when a case is made public, society has a tendency to mock the victim," he said.

Indonesia ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the convention in 1989.

Muhammad Farid, a member of a non-governmental organization specializing in helping street children in Yogyakarta, seconded Irwanto, saying that "the law is not clear because it does not touch upon child pornography and sexual harassment of children."

Farid said that cases like that of Robot Gedhek, the alleged child abuser and murderer now being tried in Jakarta, was only the tip of a giant iceberg.

"The problem lies in the public's lack of social sensitivity, which does not help the efforts to make an effective law on child sexual abuse," he said.

Irwanto also said that Indonesians are reluctant to speak freely about sex, much less express opinions on it, because most still see it as a taboo.

"They also believe that the topic is not part of a child's life," he said.

Steven J. Woodhouse, Unicef representative here, told the Post that he saw the need for an immediate cure for the problem.

Woodhouse said that Unicef was helping with advocacy, comparative studies and funding to help Indonesia overcome what he described as "the sickening problem" of child abuse.

"But Indonesia has more hope than other countries in this case, because basically the people here are more religious, posses a tight family bond, and are willing to help each other," he said. (12)