PPPA Minister Bintang Puspayoga Calls TPKS Law A Form Of State Presence To Protect Victims' Rights

PPPA Minister Bintang Puspayoga/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - Minister of PPPA Bintang Puspayoga emphasized that the Act on the Crime of Sexual Violence, which was issued on May 9, 2022, is a manifestation of the state's presence in an effort to protect and fulfill victims' rights to treatment, protection, and recovery.

"This law is a breath of fresh air for Indonesian women and children who are most vulnerable to being victims of sexual violence because it is a lex specialist (special) law that can provide comprehensive protection for victims of sexual violence from upstream to downstream," said the Minister for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Bintang Puspayoga in a statement received in Jakarta, Monday.

Minister Bintang added that the law provides protection to children and women by preventing all forms of sexual violence, handling, protecting, and recovering victims, implementing law enforcement and rehabilitating perpetrators, creating an environment without sexual violence, and ensuring that sexual violence does not recur.

The ratification of the TPKS Law is in line with one of President Joko Widodo's priority issues to the PPPA Ministry, namely reducing the number of violence against women and children.

"Victims and the state suffer tremendous impacts due to TPKS which include physical, mental, health, economic, social, and political suffering. Therefore, comprehensive regulations governing sexual violence are urgently needed," she said.

Meanwhile, the Deputy for the Protection of Women's Rights at the PPPA Ministry, Ratna Susianawati, said that not only recovery, handling, and settlement of sexual violence cases, the TPKS Law also regulates prevention through community participation.

"We must encourage public participation, community participation, especially family participation to ensure that prevention can be carried out on a massive scale. Therefore, women's organizations, mass organizations, community networks, and the government need to carry out various socialization and dissemination efforts so that people can understand the essence of this law," said Ratna.