TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) claimed that the commission has found 421 discriminatory policies during 2009-2016. This year alone, there are 33 discriminatory policies. “One discriminatory policy that has been scrapped is the prohibition for men and women from wandering around at night which has recently been scrapped by West Java provincial government ,” said Khariroh Ali, the chairwoman of Women Group in Constitution and National Law, Komnas Perempuan, in Jakarta, Thursday, August 18, 2016.
Khariroh said the regional government had often criminalized activities that should have been protected by the constitution. For example, the rights to assemble had often been associated with alleged indecent acts. “[Regional governments] have been disregarding the presumption of innocence as well as [issuing] ambiguous regulations,” she said.
Komnas Perempuan has lamented the fact that of the 3,134 bylaws scrapped by the Interior Ministry in June 2016, all of them were related to investment and licensing. “There’s a hesitation shown by the government in using the mechanism to scrap [bylaws] set forth in the Law No. 23/2014 on Regional Government against discriminatory regulations. Our findings will be submitted to the Interior Ministry,” she said.
Komnas Perempuan chairwoman Azrina said the efforts to eliminate discriminatory policies have been challenging. “We realize that since [the implementation of] regional autonomy, every region has had the urge to show their own identities. But it can be regulated. Diversity is Indonesia’s identity which must be maintained and preserved,” she said.
Arzina said that the government is responsible for upholding constitutional rights and providing it to all, not only the majority in terms of both religion and gender.
ANTARA
