End of Year Women Congress highlight for 2023 revealed the many cases of violence against women. There were at least 289,111, which prompted the National Women’s Rights Commission to open its door for direct consultation. The Women Congress received reports from 4,347 women who experienced violence. Gender-based violence made up 3,000 of these cases. The Ministry for Women and Child Protection confirmed the data in April 2024, pointing out as many as 2,681 cases in universities. The actual number of cases was far bigger than the number of women reporting the cases.
It was within this context that Universitas Atmajaya Jakarta studies the issue and hoped to uncover the pattern in order to prevent sexual violence and other forms of violence to happen in the campus. Encouragement and better reporting system offered easier access for female students to report what happened. Empathy to victims was another major priority campaign point. There was also expectation that the university could learn from other universities on how to provide comprehensive services, not merely protection of victims but also reinforcement and allowing victims to become activist to eliminate violence, be it sexual violence or other violence in campuses. This was particularly so for young people who planned to be working in an academic environment, hence the reason for theme of Safe Space for All in order to prevent sexual violence in campuses, and to increase access for services for victims.
Mariana Amirudin expressed her appreciation for women victims of gender-based violence to have the courage to come out and to take measures to recover from traumatic experience, during discussion about Prevention of Sexual Violence in Campuses at Universitas Atma Jaya,on Wednesday (4/12). Universitas Atmajaya had the intention to create a Safe Space to ensure that students felt safe that there would be important attention to protection and recovery as a matter of top priority.
Mariana extended her appreciation to women human rights defenders who tirelessly fought together with the National Women’s Rights Commission to ensure fulfilment of victims’ rights. They were excellent inspiration for others to act and fight against injustices, for the sake of human values.
The Safe Space for All discussion was a critical part of the 16-day campaign against violence against women and constituted a key moment for the elimination of violence against women in all spheres including in education in 2024. The National Women’s Rights Commission consolidated its action in Jakarta and in other areas and involved a variety of stakeholders and came up with a campaign theme “Protect All, Meet Victims’ Rights, End Violence against Women, Engage Communities to Voice Protection for All Women in Domestic and Public Spheres, in Informal and Formal Walks of Life. It also emphasised the importance of meeting victims’ rights in terms of recovery and case management, and the elimination of violence against women.
The end-of-year record within the National Women’s Rights Commission showed that there were 289,111 complaints being submitted for gender-based violence against women in 2023, with the majority happening within the domestic sphere (98.5%), the public sphere (1.4%), and the State sphere (0.1%). In 2023, the National Women’s Rights Commission received 4,347 complaints being submitted of which 3,303 were gender-based violence. This number suggested that the Commission received an average of 16 cases on a daily basis. Yet, the National Women’s Rights Commission was not an institution to accompany victims, yet people’s expected that the Commission act as an institution to listen victims’ experience. The Commission then submitted recommendation to institutions that could deal directly with the cases, so the latter could act to ensure prevention and management of violence against women cases. Complaints submitted to the Commission varied – including violence in educational institutions i.e. university campuses, which should have been safe places for education yet not fully safe for women. “Sexual violence in campuses did not only harm individuals, but also destroyed justice values and safety in academic environment,” said Mariana Amirudin.
The discussion was relevant to answer two key questions – how to prevent sexual violence in campuses and how to ensure access to services for victims.
Campuses should be a afe safe for all to develop and to achieve without fear. Hence, prevention of sexual violence was not just the responsibility of the education institutions, but also of students, lecturers and civil societies.
Resource person, Commissioner Veryanto Sitohang said that one victim wasmore than too many. Number was important, but behind the number was stories that everyone could learn from. He cited data from the last ten years, where the Commission recorded 2,560,000 cases of violence against women.
Very suggested that, although there was Law for the Elimination of Domestic Violence in 2004, the key question remained why did it take so long for people to speak up? This was because the perpetrators were people close to the victims, i.e.: husbands, fathers, and so on. There were 150,000 cases of sexual violence in the last ten years.
Someone made a comment that today a victim of sexual violence submitted a report of a case that happened years ago. Veri said that the rejection usually cited.”Why talk now, and not way back, why now?” Did the person want to commit a character assasination of the perpetrator. This showed that there was tendency to protect the perpetrator in campuses. For example, there was an incident a year or two years ago, and when the victims tried to speak up, people would level various accusations against the victim. This was even so when the perpetrator was someone influential, i.e. someone who brought (research) projects to campuses. This person had powerful colleagues that would level an accusation against the victim by saying “Oh, the victims wanted to destroy the reputation of the person.” Then, the victim thought again and again before speaking up, and to spend time of self-recovery from the incident. The victims had to fight to defeat her own fears, her trauma, and then able to speak up. This was why a safe space for women against sexual violence was a tough issue in Indonesia.
Even when there were already many policies, it was important to also create an inclusive safe space. Women with disability were considered powerless victims, and when they spoke, the infrastructure may not be ideal to support them – i.e. not all people who accompany them knew how to accompany women with multiple disability, for example using sign language because the victim had a speech impairment, how to control, manage emotion when the victim had psycho-social issues. This constituted a specific situation. In addition to all that, the law enforcement agency did not have enough knowledge/awareness of people with disability.
An Unika Atma Jaya lecture and Legal Coordinator at SAPA Unika Atma Jaya, Feronica said that the Minister of Education Regulation allowed for extraordinary implementation of pervention and management of sexual violence, which the National Women’s Rights Commission endorsed, as well as the collaboration agreement. The Task Force to fight sexual violence against Women was excellent from the beginning because it was supported by all. It had significant insights from Universitas Atmajaya. So when one asked, what had been done? In early 2021 when the Ministry of Education issued Regulation No. 30 Year 2021 there was a comparison, and the management of sexual violence was intense at universities through establishment of the task forces, with the expectation that at least 70% of cases were reported. This showed the quick pace that the Ministry of Education expected to happen in prevention and management of sexual violence to stop it from ever becoming bigger and bigger issue. There was an increase in the task forces’ capacity with the introduction of Regulation No. 55 Year 2024.
Women were not the only victims of sexual violence, although they were the majority, as men were also victims. Before Sexual Violence Criminal Law, prevention and the law were already in place. Universities abode by the Law despite the fact that they were not translated into university policies. Then the universities introduced policies re. behaviour standard or ethical code for employees and lecturers. Then there was guidelines that articulated students’ behavior in campuses. In essence, the guidelines were observed. Victims reported to units within the faculty of law to report cases of violence in campuses. Then the report would go to the university leaders, to lecturers or to Legal Consultation and Legal Aid Unit.
The Law on Elimination of Domestic Sexual Violence consolidated universities’ commitment to comprehensively and systematically put in place procedure, management and accompaniment of victims. Thus at university level, students and lecturers knew exactly where they needed to report. This safe space should not be looked at in limited terms such as “Oh, there is the physical forms, a room or space, but look at victims – who they need to report to.” Despite the law, victims still reported cases through other channels – i.e. head of program study at faculties, said Feronica.
With regards to the Ministry of Education Regulation No. 55 Year 2024, How far did the government implement the regulation and how was this inclusive approach being implemented in campuses? There was improvement from Ministry of Education Regulation No. 30 Year 2021 to Regulation menjadi Ministry of Education and Research Regulation No. 55 Year 2024 on Prevention and Management of Violence in Campuses. Now, there are regulations for other forms of violence – physical, psychological, bullying, sexual violence, discrimination, and intolerance.
Data-wise, Sexual Violence cases reported to the Ministry of Education was 49%. Thus, sexual violence remained the highest reported cases. Then, there was public consultation and mapping of violence within universities, and came up with six types. This was similar to violence in schools, in other education institutions (the latter was not only formal but also non-formal education), which then led to the Regulation No. 55 Year 2024 as common commitment in universities. Beyond violence cases, and not within the universty three-platforms (education, research, and community service), the referral mechanism – the Task Force with its limited mandate of university environment – other cases could be dealt with by the authority within the university – i.e. infringment of ethical codes or disciplinary codes. (Astuti)
