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Education and R&D |
The sub-commission of Research, Education and R&D works on the mandate to carry out analysis and researches on the latest development of the VOW situation. These analysis and researches try to comprehensively understand different aspects which define women’s conditions such as their roles as women, members of the society, Indonesian nationals and the citizens of the world. Thus the analysis and the researches are based on the national legislation, as well as the international instruments regarding the protection of the women’s human rights. They are also aimed at understanding the connections between the legislations, their implementations, the roles of the strategic institutions, and the public participation in creating a just society, free from violence. This sub-commission is also responsible to weave the experience of other sub-commissions into a common learning and knowledge to be further disseminated publicly. The main function of this sub-committee is to build a synergic, sustainable and effective communication and cooperation between institutions, between the state and the society, in order to eliminate all forms of violence against women.
Komnas Perempuan is of the opinion that most of the human rights conventions forget to adopt a gender perspective and thus reducing the human rights accountability merely to the public sphere. The findings of Komnas Perempuan, however, show that the discrimination, violence against women, and violation of women’s human rights occur both in the public and the private spheres. This sub-commission tries to implement a human rights framework in the matters hitherto considered private; such as making the issues of domestic workers, both in the country and abroad, a human rights issue to be prioritized and properly addressed within the human rights framework.
In 2007, abiding by the mandate, the division formulated six priority programs: (1) Establishing the Meaning of Justice for the Woman Victims of Violence, (2) the Research on Sexuality and Democracy in Indonesia, (3) the Research on the Women’s Access to Justice, (4) the Internal Learning Forum, (5) the Analysis on the Protection of the Domestic Workers, and (6) the Analysis on the Compilation of Islamic Laws. These programs were formulated as the response to the women’s issues in order to uphold the women’s human rights.
(1) Establishing the Meaning of Justice for the Woman Victims of Violence
From the experience of various communities, Komnas Perempuan sees the vital role of religious institutions. The woman victims of violence usually make the religious institutions their first choice to file a complaint, their hope of attaining justice from acts of violence they suffered.
Alas that the religious institutions are hitherto fail to optimally respond to that hope. It is nothing new to hear that the religious institutions and their leaders put the blame on the victims, instead.
Komnas Perempuan, with the leaders of the three biggest religious institutions in Indonesia (the Moslems, the Catholics, and the Protestants), tries to listen to the voices of the woman victims of violence by making a theological framework for action to acquire justice sought by the victims.
The religious leaders are called to proactively try to listen to the voices of the victims. The voices would then serve as a foundation upon which the leaders will write a concept of justice for the victims within their religious teachings, and on the roles their respective institutions can play in addressing the needs of the victims of violence. The resulting manuscript will then be published to serve as a reference for other religious leaders nationwide.
(2) The Research on Sexuality and Democracy in Indonesia
The background of the research is the fact that the Anti-Porn Act, drafted since 2006, has been passed by the parliament. Though the Act professes to curb pornography, several groups within the Indonesian society think that the Act criminalizes women’s body, legalizes a moral judgment as a penal code, and gives a carte blanche to the State to control its citizens’ modes of expression.
The research will dive deep to portray the struggle of the society in upholding the women’s rights to sexuality, within the democratic framework. The research also aims to document the process of the socio-political movement in support or against the anti-porn issue.
(3) The Research on the Women’s Access to Justice
The program is a collaborative effort from Komnas Perempuan and the Women’s Study Center of the University of Indonesia (PKWJ UI). The research was prompted by the increasing awareness amongst the woman victims of violence on the situation they suffer. This awareness will compel them to seek access to justice and control of their rights. There have been, in fact, obstacles against their accessing justice, both by formal and informal means. The service providers and law enforces is at the moment helpless to guarantee an optimum protection for women to access justice for their rights.
The research aims to discover the women’s idea of justice, their ways of winning control over their own rights. The research will also map the obstacles faced during the struggle to access justice, and the responds of the religious and traditional institutions toward the efforts of woman victims of violence to gain justice.
The research was completed in August—December 2008, in Banjarmasin, Mataram and Bengkulu.
(4) The Internal Learning Forum
The Internal Learning Forum (FBI) is a series of discussions on the actual and current issues regarding women’s rights. The FBI is held monthly in the form of a three hours discussion. To enrich the discussion, usually the speakers are experts outside the Komnas Perempuan circle. Based on the information from the speakers, Komnas Perempuan will hold a critical deliberation in the lights of the visions, missions, and the strategic plans. In 2008, the issues discussed were: (1) Sexuality, the Religion, and the State, (2) the UN Human Rights Mechanisms, (3) the TNI Reformation: the obstacles and challenges regarding the satisfactory closure of the gender based human rights violations, (4) LGBT as a human rights issue.
The FBI aims to formulate recommendations for further action plans regarding the issues discussed.
(5) The Analysis on the Protection of the Domestic Workers
The problems of the domestic workers within the country is none the better than those of the domestic workers abroad. The domestic workers within the country are also vulnerable to violence. The violations against their rights as workers and human rights are also frequent. The phenomenon is getting complicated when the society replies to the problems with a cultural context, and when the woman domestic workers must struggle against the women who employ them as domestic workers.
The division of Education and R&D makes a comprehensive analysis on the protection for domestic workers from the viewpoints of Indonesian cultures. This program also aims to map the condition suffered by the domestic workers by holding a dialogue with the relevant stakeholders. These efforts hopefully will help the formulation of the effective standard strategy of the protection for the Indonesian domestic workers.
(6) The Analysis on the Compilation of Islamic Laws
There are several sensitive issues within the Compilation of Islamic Laws (KHI) currently under debate. Without contending against the basic tenets of Islamic teachings, the division of Education and R&D plans to analyze the KHI by using a women’s perspective within the Indonesian socio-cultural context.
In the analysis, the division will put emphasizes on six sensitive issues: (1) polygamy, (2) marriage between persons with different religions, (3) marriage between persons of the same sex, (4) bride guardian (wali), (5) bride guardian (wali), and (6) contracted marriage (mut’ah).
In carrying out the analysis, the division will enlist the participation of the groups within the society concerned with the respective issues. A common dialogue space will be opened. Hopefully the analysis will serve as a recommendation for Komnas Perempuan and the general society, regarding the implementation of KHI in the context of the diversity of the Indonesian culture.
