Chairman Of The House Of Representatives Human Rights Commission Calls The Constitutional Court Decision Progressive: Women Will Have Wider Space In The House Of Representatives

JAKARTA - Chairman of Commission XIII DPR RI Willy Aditya, said that the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) which requires women's representation in every Council Apparatus (AKD) to the leadership level is a progressive step in strengthening democracy. According to him, female legislators will have a wider space in the DPR and strengthen gender equality in parliament.

According to Willy, the Constitutional Court rules stipulate that women must be represented in the entire structure of the DPR AKD, from members to leaders, are complementary to the women's representation policies that have previously been regulated in the electoral system.

"This decision is progressive, so from upstream to downstream it is built. There is a proportional representative of women. This is an important decision that I think all parties will appreciate," Willy told reporters, Monday, November 3.

Willy assessed that the presence of a female perspective is very important in the process of implementing the functions of the DPR, both in legislation, budgeting, and supervision of the government. With this decision, according to him, members of the DPR or female legislators will have wider room in carrying out their functions of dewacy, starting from legislation, budget, and supervision.

"The best thoughts of women in the DPR will have wider space in the discussion of legislation, budget and supervision. This will certainly be a way to achieve a better product of the DPR's authority," Willy explained.

The head of the commission in charge of human rights affairs (HAM) also considered that the Constitutional Court's decision strengthened Indonesia's commitment to fulfilling human rights. Willy even said that this decision was more advanced than practices in a number of major democracies.

According to Willy, in countries such as America and the European Union alone, proportional representation or parity system is only a discretion of parliamentary/dewan leaders or party factions.

"Only a finger is counted, there is a country that regulates the details of women's representation in parliament proportionally at the level of law, and Indonesia is now one of them," said Willy.

"The majority of the state only regulates until the Electoral Quota at the level of the law or regulates it in the Law on Special Equality, not in the Law of Parliament. We should be grateful for this. We are more than America and the European Union when compared to the NasDem Legislator from the XI East Java electoral district.

Willy added that the DPR needs to immediately adjust its rules so that the implementation of the Constitutional Court's decision can run in line with the progressive spirit being promoted.

"This progressive decision certainly needs to be announced in the DPR's rules. I think the leadership of the DPR and related AKD will soon work to welcome the Constitutional Court's decision. We are waiting for the good news soon," he concluded.

As is known, the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) decided that there must be a 30 percent representation of women in the leadership of the DPR AKD apparatus. This lawsuit related to women's representation was filed by the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), the Indonesian Women's Coalition, and Titi Anggraini.

In the verdict read out on Thursday, October 30, the Constitutional Court stated that every AKD starting from the Commission, the Deliberative Body, the Special Committee, the Legislation Body, the Budget Agency, the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Agency, the Council's Honorary Court, the Household Affairs Agency, and every leadership of the Council's equipment must have women's representation.