From December 11th to 13th, 2018, ECPAT Indonesia and MaPPI UI together with the Indonesian Attorney General's Office of Education and Training organized a training aimed at prosecutors, child prosecutors and the Indonesian Attorney General's Office of Education and Training with the title 'Training of the Prosecution and Protection of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Criminal Acts Children (TPESA) '. This training is part of Down to Zero, a program initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to eradicate child sexual exploitation in 11 countries, one of which is Indonesia. With support from the Dutch ECPAT, Terre des Hommes and Plan International Indonesia as part of the Down to Zero alliance, this training successfully invited 46 prosecutors and child prosecutors of which 40 prosecutors came from Jabodetabek and 6 prosecutors from Batam and Surabaya.
The prosecutor is a part of law enforcement who has a strategic position in handling cases of sexual exploitation of children. Despite of having that strategic role, from cases of child exploitation that have been handled by ECPAT Indonesia unfortunately there are still many impartialities found to victims, victims' families and the community in terms of processes, procedures and even court decisions. This impartiality can be seen from several cases that reflect less than maximum law enforcement in handling cases of children who are victims of sexual exploitation. Starting from law enforcement officers who are not optimal in conducting investigations, perspective of law enforcement officials who are still lacking in the rights of children and sexual exploitation of children, as well as inadequate and inappropriate use of laws. In other words, there are still many things that need to be evaluated and addressed in order to maximizing law enforcement in Indonesia.
Seeing this background, ECPAT Indonesia and MaPPI FH UI together with the Indonesian Attorney General's Office of Education and Training undertook an initiative to organize training aimed for increasing the capacity of prosecutors in handling cases of sexual exploitation of children. With speakers from various professions, such as practitioners, academics, institutions and government, the training held at the Indonesian Attorney General's Office of Education and Training covers several things such as:
- Strengthening prosecutors' perspectives on children's rights, optional protocols that have been ratified in Law No. 10 of 2012 concerning Ratification of the Protocol and knowledge of TPESA;
- Enriching the knowledge of laws and regulations related to TPESA;
- Improve the ability to practice in the field, such as analyzing cases and identifying elements of the law, making indictments and also letters of demand;
- Also, one other important thing, in this training also emphasizes procedural law, evidence related to TPESA and prosecutor ethics based on SEJA No. SE-007 / A / JA / 10/2016 and WORK No. PER-014 / A / JA / 11/2012.
This training is a continuation of MoU signing between ECPAT Indonesia and the Attorney General's Office of Education and Training which was held last August. The MoU stated that the Indonesian Attorney General's Office of Education and Training had the obligation to replicate the training that had been conducted.
From the training, it appears that various prosecutors have diverse responses in dealing with cases of sexual exploitation of children. There are prosecutors who already have a good perspective in handling cases related to children, there are also those who still see a case with a single perspective. Another interesting thing, there are still many prosecutors who have not been able to define the vulnerability of children in the Act. In fact, based on Erni Mustikasari's presentation from the Attorney General's General Criminal Attorney, children's vulnerability has already contained in Law No. 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights, which reads:
"Everyone who belongs to a vulnerable group of people has the right to receive treatment and protection with regard to their specificity"
In the elucidation of the article, it is stated that what is meant by vulnerable groups are the elderly, children, the poor, pregnant women and people with disabilities. For more information, the material in the prosecutor's training can be accessed at bit.ly/pelatihankejaksaan
Translator : Muhammad Shobar Arief
(Intern from Universitas Brawijaya)