“Reject RKUHP that Criminalizes Women, Children, Indigenous Peoples and Marginalized Groups”
We are women, housewives, workers, students, students, activists, survivors of sexual violence who have great concerns about the criminalization of citizens’ privacy in discussions of RKUHP sections of ethics in Parliament.
One is the article about adultery which extends the notion of adultery from an affair (overspell) in article 284 of the Criminal Code into any consensual sex outside of marriage (fornication / extramarital sex).
The expansion of the meanings of adultery can be found in Article 484 paragraph (1) letter e “punishable for adultery with a maximum imprisonment of 5 years, men and women who are not bound each in a legitimate marriage of intercourse.”
This article is a report offense which means that anyone can report on other people’s adultery. Surely this will increase persecution and vigilante culture in community groups. People will compete to become moral police and intervene in the privacy of others. House raids, boarding houses, apartments and other privacy rooms will be more prevalent if this article is passed.
In addition, for us this provision will threaten our family, children, people closest, further than that threaten our lives as human beings.
Here are the reasons why we reject the provisions of the adultery section of the RKUHP:
1. This provision makes us reluctant rape survivors and is afraid to report the perpetrators of rape to the police because if we can not prove that the rape occurred or the perpetrator confessed that the rape is a liking relationship, then we will be accused of adultery and we will be jailed together our rapist.
2. For us mothers with teenagers this chapter poses a threat to the lives of our children. In many cases, children are often victims of sexual exploitation of adults. Due to immaturity of his age, children are often tricked by adults to have sex. If this provision is passed by our son who was a victim of sexual exploitation of an adult will be jailed for adultery. We do not want to let our children lose the future because of this chapter.
3. Couples who do not have marriage books are also vulnerable to being criminalized by this article because they can not prove that their sex is constituted by legal marriage. For Dewi Kanti, a believer, this provision will direct the believer’s trust group. “This information is based on experience, both personal and in the Indigenous Community of Karuhun Sunda Wiwitan as part of Indonesian citizens who until now still have not fulfilled the constitutional rights related to the absence of state in the service of population administration. The non-entry of indigenous marriages by the state has triggered us as indigenous and tribal peoples very vulnerable to criminalization “. (information Dewi Kanti in the Penal Code Penalties adultery in the Constitutional Court)
4. We witness many women who are promised marriage vows are often left behind by couples when they have a pregnancy. The hope of building a family becomes annihilated when their spouse runs away from responsibility. This provision is not to save women from the situation but to make women as criminals.
Therefore we are inviting to:
1. The House of Representatives abolished articles potentially criminalizing women, rape victims, children, married couples, couples, polygamy couples and the public at large.
2. The Parliament reviews articles in the moral chapter by paying attention to human rights, the experience of women, children and indigenous minorities.
3. The House of Representatives opens public space for listening to the voices of women, children, rape victims and indigenous minorities. Thank you for your attention. We sincerely hope our request is responded to. Signed: Single Pawestri, Carolina J Monteiro, Naila Rizqi, Anindya Restuviani, Kerri Na Basaria Pandjaitan, Dea Safira, Maria Clarissa Fionalita, Aquino Hayunta
*Access the original petition from Change.org here.
**Translation from Indonesian on Google Translate.