Komnas: Women's Representation In Politics Has Not Improved

Deputy Chairperson of Komnas Perempuan Olivia Salampessy (right) at the "Guidelines for Monitoring the Implementation of General Elections that Strengthen the Role and Advancement of Indonesian Women's Rights", in Jakarta, Tuesday (11/11/2023). (ANTARA/ Anita

Deputy Chairperson of Komnas Perempuan, Olivia Salampessy, said that women's representation in Indonesia, both in legislative, executive and judicial institutions, has not shown a significant increase or has not met the 30 percent affirmation. "Within a period of 65 years since the state's recognition of women's political rights, the representation of Indonesian women in legislative, executive and judicial institutions has not shown a significant increase," Olivia Salampessy said at the "Guidelines for Monitoring for the Implementation of General Elections that Strengthen the Role and Advancement of Indonesian Women's Rights" in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, November 21. His party noted that in 12 general elections in Indonesia, the highest percentage of women's representation in the DPR occurred in 2019 as many as 20.87 percent or 120 women from 575 DPR members. Meanwhile, for the representation of regional heads and deputy regional heads, the highest elected women were in 2015, namely 46 women out of 1,646 candidates. "Furthermore, fluctuations decreased until 2020, with only 35 female candidates selected from 1,432 candidates," he said. Olivia Salampessy added that based on World Economic Forum data, Indonesia was ranked 87th out of 146 countries with a score of 0.697 in the Global Gender Gap Index in 2023. "The Indonesian score is burdened by the Women's Empowerment Index in the political field, including women's representation in parliament and those who become ministers in the cabinet are still very low, namely 0.181 or below the global average," he said.

In fact, Indonesia has recognized women's political rights since the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Women's Politics or The Convention on the Political Rights of Women to Law Number 68 of 1958, as well as Law Number 7 of 1984 concerning the Ratification of Conventions concerning the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).