Akedemi Penghapusan Kekerasan Seksual or Academy for the Elimination of Sexual Crimes is a project with the main objective of building sustainable training for the implementation of the newly enacted Law Number 12 the Year 2022 on Sexual Violence Crimes. According to Paragraph 26 Article 3 Point B, the law mandates that the victim’s companions or social workers must meet the qualification which is to have completed training and education on sexual violence case handling. It also mandates in Paragraph 27 Article 1 Point B that police investigators, persecutors, and judges that handle a sexual violence case must have completed training on sexual violence cases. In accordance with this, the project wishes to advance access to justice for victims of sexual violence crimes through a series of education development and training implementation, along with advocacy efforts.

The project will start its implementation through the development of interpretation for the Sexual Violence Law and training modules. Advocacy to related government stakeholders such as BAPPENAS and Center of Education and Training for Justice Sector Institutions will also be conducted throughout the project. The training itself will involve justice sector officials, legal aid providers, and related stakeholders from the representative of three regions in Indonesia, which is DKI Jakarta, Kepulauan Riau, and Nusa Tenggara Timur. Case monitoring and post- training evaluation will also be done after the training to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Efforts to encourage the Implementation of the TPKS Law; Need for New Systems and Knowledge Based on Victims’ Experiences  

Komnas Perempuan noted that sexual violence cases had increased by 72% in 2021. Likewise, LBH APIK Jakarta received 114 sexual violence complaints against women and children in 2021. Based on the experience of assisting sexual violence cases carried out by LBH APIK Jakarta, there are still several obstacles such as Law Enforcement Officials (APH) and service officers who do not have a victim’s perspective, the burden of proof is still very difficult, criminalization of victims of sexual violence, and weak recovery support.  

In 2022, thanks to encouragement from victims, survivors and community and civil networks, the Government passed Law Number 12 of 2022 concerning Criminal Acts of Sexual Violence (UU TPKS). To support the implementation of the TPKS Law, Komnas Perempuan together with LBH APIK Jakarta and STH Indonesia Jentera built a consortium to develop the concept and program of the Academy for the Elimination of Sexual Violence (APKS) which is intended as a basic system for strengthening the capacity of law enforcement officers and service providers to ensure access to justice for victims with the perspective of inclusion and transformative justice, building a monitoring system for the results of training on the implementation of the TPKS Law and strengthening coordination between sectors in providing integrated treatment and recovery services. This program is implemented through 4 (four) stages, namely: 1) preparation of interpretations of the TPKS Law and training modules, 2) policy and budget advocacy, 3) implementation of training, and 4) case monitoring and post-training evaluation.  

Throughout 2023, the APKS consortium has implemented the four stages mentioned above, and produced 3 (three) publications, namely Interpretation of the TPKS Law, Monitoring of TPKS Handling, and APKS Training Module. These three documents form a single unit to ensure, among other things, that there is a victim’s perspective in understanding and implementing the TPKS Law, that there are minimum standards in implementing training for handling TPKS cases, and that there is data on the results of evaluating the implementation of the TPKS Law for 1 year since it was passed.  

The training was attended by 27 law enforcement officers and government service personnel as well as civil society. During the training, it was found that several APH still used myths and assumptions such as victims experiencing violence because of the way they dress, social situations. Apart from that, there are no integrated services for handling sexual violence cases, the TPKS Law has not been socialized to all APHs and there is no common understanding between institutions in handling sexual violence cases.  

This is in line with the experience of companions who monitor the handling of sexual violence cases. After the passing of the TPKS Law, victim advocates continuously tried to encourage law enforcement officials to receive and follow up on victim reports by taking advantage of legal breakthroughs in the TPKS Law. However, it is still found that APH rejects victims’ reports because they still use a gender-biased perspective and are not in accordance with the mandate of the TPKS Law. Some APHs are also still reluctant to use the TPKS Law for various reasons, such as there has been no socialization and they are more familiar with using other laws, for example the ITE Law.  

Apart from negative experiences, there are several good practices after the passing of the TPKS Law, there have been at least 4 out of 7 reports of sexual violence that have been received and processed by the police using the TPKS Law as well as 17 court decisions applying the TPKS Law. Meanwhile, at the court level, there have been 2 decisions regarding electronic-based sexual violence using Article 14 paragraph (1) of the TPKS Law regarding the act of recording and/or taking images or screenshots that contain sexual content against the will or without the consent of the person who is the object of the recording. or such images or screenshots. One of the cases that was successfully decided under this article was a case where the perpetrator had recorded the activities of several women urinating in a hotel toilet using a cell phone. The perpetrator was sentenced to up to 2 (two) years in prison for his actions. This decision is a good example for the implementation of the TPKS Law regarding electronic-based sexual violence.  

The running of this program provides learning about the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, where in handling cases of sexual violence it is very important for all parties to have a perspective and be involved. So that the 4 aspects of the TPKS Law, namely prevention, treatment, protection and recovery, can be implemented. We can also find out that there are articles that have multiple interpretations which can be detrimental to victims because they can be interpreted based on the assumptions and interests of certain parties. From the results of the monitoring carried out, it is clear that the implementation of the TPKS Law has not been optimal, such as the implementation of articles that are not appropriate, the APH’s perspective is minimal regarding handling TPKS, and there is not the same understanding among APH in handling TPKS.  

The APKS consortium consists of practitioners (facilitators), state institutions and academics who each have their strengths to support the implementation of this program. LBH APIK Jakarta has experience in assisting cases of sexual violence so that it can understand the obstacles and challenges in handling cases, apart from that, LBH APIK Jakarta also has case data, STHI Jentera which has a very strong academic background with legal substance and Komnas Perempuan is a state institution that has extensive network with both civil society and government and APH, making it easier to carry out advocacy.  

The future hope of the APKS consortium is that these three documents can become an alternative reference for the government in ensuring the implementation of the TPKS Law which takes the perspective of victims, human rights, gender and vulnerable groups as well as the SPPT-PKKTP, the existence of ongoing training whose implementation is supported by the state budget so that more APH will be born. and companions who have a victim’s perspective.