July 19, 2022 – President Joko Widodo passed the Peraturan Presiden (Presidential Decree) Nomor 101 Tahun 2022 on the National Strategy to Eradicate Violence Against Children.
This new decree is signed by Jokowi on Friday (15/7) in the midst of an increasing number of children sexually assaulted in educational institutions.
“To protect children from violence and discrimination, [we] need to take more effort in violence and discrimination management and prevention towards children,” quoted from one point of consideration in the regulation on Monday (18/7).
Another point of consideration is the amount of violence against children in Indonesia is still high, thus the role of the government needs to be optimized.
Furthermore, another consideration taken by Jokowi for this decree is that the current laws and regulations regarding child violence has yet to provide optimal prevention and treatment. Thus, this presidential decree is released to form a national strategy as a reference for the central and local governments in preventing or dealing with violence against children.
There are seven strategies in this decree. First is the provision of policies, implementation of regulations, and law enforcement. Second, strengthening the norms and values of non-violence. Third, creating a safe environment from violence.
Fourth, upgrading the quality of care and support for parents or caregivers. Fifth is economic support for elderly families.
Sixth, integrated service availability, and access. And seventh, education for children’s self-defense.
Child Violence Surging Each year
According to the government’s data, the number of child violence recorded from 2016 to 2020 is 54,366. From that number, 37,435 of them were girls while 16,931 were boys. The data also shows that there’s a surge of victims from 7.879 in 2016 to 10,770 in 2020.
In addition, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) has recorded a total of 14,517 cases of violence against children in 2021. From that number, almost half of the cases are sexual violence.
According to the PPPA Minister I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati, one of the most concerning things is that the amount of violence recorded might not be the amount of violence against children and women entirely.
