Veni Siregar and Titim Fatmawati*
“That night I visited Yuli’s house (not her real name). She is a survivor of sexual violence that I accompany. Yuli experienced sexual violence by the son of the village head where she lived ”. Recalls Titim Fatmawati, a companion for women and children survivors of violence. Her journey to accompany the victim was full of twists and turns. The victim came under pressure from the village head, supporters of the village head, and even government officials in the village, as a result the victim nearly committed suicide. This pressure was not only experienced by the victim, but Titim and her colleagues as companions often received terror from the perpetrators.
This story is one of the many cases handled by Titim as a companion to violence in Sapuan (Sahabat Perempuan Anak) Blitar, which is a member institution in the Forum Pengada Layanan. Initially, the forum was a learning forum that was formed by National Commision on Violence Against Women in 2001. The learning forum consisted of institutions working on the handling and recovery of women victims of violence. The learning forum becomes a forum for sharing experiences in the work of handling and restoring women victims of violence as well as a space to improve the quality of services. Activities carried out by forum members are joint advocacy so that the rights of women victims of violence can be protected, respected and fulfilled by the state.
In its 15 years of journey, the learning forum aims to advance its professionalism, efficiency and independence to become a service provider institution. At the National Conference in Medan on 29-31 October 2015, it was agreed to change the name to the Forum Pengada Layanan (FPL). Taking into account the diversity of regions, resources, and needs for handling victims that are very specific to each person and in accordance with their environmental conditions, the FPL is then divided into several regions to optimize its work in providing services to women victims. Currently FPL consists of three regions, namely the West Region (Sumatra), the Central Region (Java, Bali, Kalimantan, and West Nusa Tenggara) and the Eastern Region (Sulawesi, Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, and Papua). The division of the region aims to facilitate coordination and provide mutual support and expand membership, provide services, and establish cooperation among network members (fpl.or.id). Until now, FPL has 115 members in 32 provinces from Aceh to Papua.
FPL has the aim of realizing social conditions that are gender equitable through fulfilling the rights of women victims of violence to truth, justice, recovery, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. In order to achieve this goal, FPL has various missions. First, building a comprehensive, holistic, inclusive, quality and sustainable service system that is oriented to the needs and rights of victims. Second, building a culture of mentoring that ensures victims’ access to services, strengthens the capacity and solidarity of women survivors and members of the FPL. Third, increase professionalism and solidity, as well as the bargaining position of service provider institutions as part of social movements in Indonesia.
In carrying out its mission, FPL has encountered the fact that there are still many service providers provided by the government at the provincial or district / city level which have weaknesses in terms of resources and understanding, some are even inactive. This has resulted in the service provider institutions initiated by the community who were members of the FPL to become the foundation of hope for victims to help them resolve violence and at the same time obtain recovery. There are several obstacles that are often encountered by FPL, namely the lack of psychologists, assistants, lawyers, as well as limited and difficult to access government services such as safe houses and free health services. Therefore, FPL considers it important to encourage state responsibility in the prevention, protection and recovery of victims of violence against women.
Advocating for the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence (Pungkas Bill)
Since 2015, FPL has participated in advocating for the Pungkas Bill as an effort to urge the role of the state in providing protection for the rights of victims of sexual violence. Pungkas Bill was initiated by National Commision on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) in 2012 and FPL continues to provide support by documenting cases of sexual violence that are reported and encountered. In this case, pressing the interests of victims is very important, because in the aspect of handling, cases of sexual violence are very difficult to reveal because of the limited legal substance to identify forms of sexual violence in the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and laws. The absence of a special policy that supports the recovery and management of women victims of sexual violence has implications for victims. The victims continue to experience prolonged trauma and some of the cases are difficult to process.
FPL together with National Commision on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), took the role of being one of the networks that advocated for the Pungkas Bill to be included in the Program Legislasi Nasional (Prolegnas – national legislation program). The Pungkas Bill is currently included in the 2021 Priority Prolegnas, previously canceled in the 2020 Priority Prolegnas. In conducting advocacy, FPL conducts various dialogues with the Indonesian Parliament, KPPPA (The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection), Bappenas (Ministry of National Development Planning of the Republic of Indonesia / National Development Planning Agency), Kemenko PMK (The Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia), and the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. FPL also carries out consolidation with academics, civil society organizations, and religious groups at both national and regional levels, as well as public campaigns at each session period since 2017.
FPL has monitored the House of Representatives by establishing a parliamentary desk since 2017 to monitor the deliberation process at the House of Representatives. FPL also supports legislators and government with data on sexual violence. In fact, FPL once held a limited meeting between House of Representatives members and survivors, so that the government would understand the situation of sexual violence cases empirically. Currently, FPL together with the civil society network continues to actively oversee the discussion of the Pungkas Bill so that it can be passed immediately.
