Violence Against Women Is Like An Iceberg Phenomenon

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) Olivia C. Salampessy said that violence against women is an iceberg phenomenon because the known case data is only limited to reported cases.

"The data presented in Catahu (Annual Notes of Komnas Perempuan 2022) are still indicative of the tip of the iceberg on the issue of violence against women," Olivia said at the online launch of Komnas Perempuan's 2022 Annual Notes, Data on Violence Against Women in 2021, in Jakarta, Monday 7 March.

In reality, the data collected is limited to cases where victims were reported and the number and capacity of institutions that participated in the compilation effort to present this Catahu, she said.

She explained that the data collected by Komnas Perempuan came from complaints received by community institutions, government institutions, and direct complaints to Komnas Perempuan.

"Data collection on gender-based violence against women in Komnas Perempuan's Catahu is based on the receipt and handling of case reports received by community institutions and government institutions as well as direct complaints to Komnas Perempuan," she said.

Olivia said that her party is cooperating with one of them with the religious judiciary.

"Komnas Perempuan cooperates with the government which already has a mechanism to process data throughout Indonesia, such as Badilag or the Religious Courts Agency which already has data on divorce rates and has categorized the causes of divorce," she said.

In the 2022 Komnas Perempuan Catahu, it was recorded that there were reports of cases of gender-based violence increasing in 2021 compared to 2020. "There was a significant increase of 50 percent of cases of gender-based violence against women, namely 338,506 cases in 2021 from 226,062 cases in 2020," Olivia said.