Menggagas Tempat Aman Bagi Perempuan Kasus Papua

Findings from the first stage research on the violence against women in Papua province, show that most women whether residing in urban or rural areas are exposed to various forms of violence, sexual and nonsexual, physical and otherwise. In general violence against women is influenced by the social and cultural inequality caused by kinship system and the economic inequality manifested in subordination and marginalization of women in family and society. Violence against women is also attributed to the little accommodation, or lack of it, of the local society, which arouses hatred, and enmity against women that eventually culminates into actions of violence.

Testimonies of the pervasiveness of gender inequality obtained from surveys and in-depth interviews with prominent local figures in Jayapura. It was found out that less than a third of the respondents have high gender awareness. A large section of the respondents were ambivalent about gender for while on one hand, they acknowledged the position of women along with her rights as a member of the society, the same people justified the existence of social values that subordinate women, on the other. It is not surprising that such prominent figures are insensitive to actions of violence against women.

Gender awareness was found to be higher among the mass media figures, intellectuals, as well as prominent figures in NGOs. Even here, not all the aforementioned showed high gender awareness. Many of them are ambivalent on the gender issue. Politicians and customary leaders were found to have low gender awareness. This is an extremely worrying development considering the immense influence in society, hence should play a crucial role in efforts toward protection of women from all forms of violence.

This research also found out that there is low gender awareness and sensitivity among the law enforcement personnel reflected by their attitude to cases involving actions of violence committed against women, which were brought to their institutions. Another problem was found to lay in the unjust verdicts made by judges, which are a consequence of shortcomings and loopholes in the Criminal law code KUHP. Articles in the criminal law code tend to over emphasize the perpetrator rather than the victim of the crime, as there is absence of articles, which could be employed in dealing with cases involving violence against women in an integrated and comprehensive manner. It is not rare for judges to pass light sentences on rape cases. Another shortcoming in the criminal law code that there are still many cases of violence against women, which have not yet been incorporated into it, which is major obstacle in handling such cases, committed either in public or domestic domain. Detailed description of the identification of forms and capability of actions taken, sensitivity of vision and mission, targeted groups, along with the methods employed in handling actions of violence against women by institutions of concern will be elaborated in this chapter.

Key word: Violence, Inequality, Gender Awareness.