26 March 2008
JAKARTA, Indonesia: 24 years after the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW), Indonesia has made some progresses but still faces challenges to end gender discriminations.

And even though gender issues and women’s rights receive bigger public attention recently but discriminations against women continue to occur.

A number of laws have been passed since Indonesia ratified CEDAW which among others include Law no.7/1984 on CEDAW, Law no.23/2004 on Domestic Violence, Law no.21/2007 on trafficking, Law no.11/2006 on Ecosoc and Law no.39/1999 on human rights.

Despite the passing of these laws, there are currently 22 gender insensitive laws in as stated in Indonesia’s report to CEDAW Committee, hampering efforts to fully protect women’s rights as part of human rights. “All the discriminations have enormous impacts on the lives of women, hurting their families and communities too,” said Lany Harijanti UNFPA National Programme Officer for Gender in a recent UNFPA-supported seminar to review the implementation of CEDAW.

Ms. Sri Danti from the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment stressed that mainstreaming gender in national development is still challenging especially since officials in the executive, legislative and judicial bodies have limited knowledge about CEDAW principles to implement it.

The results of gender-based discriminations in different sectors are reflected in the following data: illiteracy rate among women is 12.28%, two times higher than that of men at 5.48%; maternal mortality rate remains high at 307/100,000 live births; percentage of women in House of Representative and City Council is still low at 11.6% and 19.8% respectively. Apart from that, discrimination against women has been linked to accelerating the spread of HIV/AIDS and experiences in various countries show that efforts to reverse HIV/AIDS will not be effective without involving women and improving their bargaining position in all aspects of life.

Similar view was aired by Saraswati Dewi, a speaker from the University of Indonesia. She said resistances toward the Convention commonly stemmed from cultural, traditional and/or religious values and these are often preserved by the failures to uphold CEDAW principles and to impose sanction to any violations against these principles.

On the religious values, Siti Musdah Mulia from state-owned Universitas Islam Nasional explained that most people cannot see the difference between religious teachings and interpretations of religious teaching (ajaran agama and tafsir agama). “tafsir agama are usually based on men’s interpretation and it can be influenced by a person’s understanding on the religion and his or her own culture,” said Ms. Musdah who in March 2007 won the International Women of Courage Award from the US Government.

Lifting obstacles that limit women’s potential allow women’s contributions to improving the wellbeing of their families and at a bigger scope, to supporting development efforts in their own communities and in the country.

 For further information please contact:
 Maria Endah Hulupi
 UNFPA Communications Officer: 0812 1115 116