Advocacy of Legal Aid Organizations: A Challenge in Handling

Sexual Violence Case against Girls

Rosmalinda

, and Tri Murti Lubis

Faculty of Law, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Universitas No 4 Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Legal aid, sexual violation, advocacy.

Abstract: The Legal Aid Organization (OBH) of the community is an important group in the Child Protection System

in Indonesia. Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid regulated OBH. This research is entitled "Model of

Community Advocacy on Sexual Violence cases in Medan City". The purpose of this study was to

determine the role of OBH in the protection of children, especially girls who were victims of sexual

violence. The study used literature and field research in Medan. Literatures were reviewed to get

information related to OBH and institutions that work for child victims of sexual violence. Furthermore,

there were 11 informants who involved in the in-depth interview and focus group discussion (FGD). They

were from 5 OBH in Medan and were verified by Department of justice and human rights (Kementerian

Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia/Kemenkumham). The results of the research are (a) OBHs find challenges

in advocating sexual violence cases against children, (b) The model of advocacy which is more effective

than others is prevention program such as community counseling in order to prevent sexual violence against

children (c) lack of number of OBH in Medan which actively providing legal assistance on sexual violence

cases.

1 INTRODUCTION

Glen Mower mentioned that 50 million children

work in unsafe and unhealthy situations (Mower,

1997). 120 million children aged 6-11 years dropped

out of school. 155 million children under the age of

5 years live in poverty and millions of children in

the world including in developed countries

experience neglect and neglect, sexual exploitation

and victims of drug abuse (Mower, 1997). The bad

situation that occurs in children continues to occur,

based on UNICEF data in 2015, in developing

countries there are 39 percent of children who live in

poor poverty (Poverty, C. 2015). However, these

data As many as 569 million children live with an

income of US $ 1.25 a day (UNICEF, 2015). Similar

data provided by Save the Children, 570 million

children in the world live in poverty, 400 million of

whom are 12-year-old children in developing

countries (UNICEF, 2015).

Bad situations that occur in children in the world

include children in Indonesia. In Indonesia based on

available data in 2011, there have been around 2,509

cases of violence against children, 59% were sexual

violence cases. This violence is a gender violence

which involves girls as victims (Fernández &

Alexis, 2014).

In 2012, KPAI recorded reports of 2,637 cases

of violence against children and 62% of them were

cases of sexual violence (UNICEF, 2015). From

year to year, number of sexual violence against

children is increasing. Actually, data which were

available is not a fixed data. The whole data based

are partial data which collected by an institution.

UNICEF mentioned in its research report that there

is not reliable prevalence data regarding to sexual

violence cases in Indonesia (Rumble et.al, 2018).

This situation made Indonesian government in

limited situation to assess whether the issue of

sexual violence in children is increasing or

decreasing to make decisions for investment in

policy and research (Rumble et.al, 2018).

Regardless of the situation and conditions in

Indonesia which have not been accurate about the

data on the prevalence of sexual violence in children

that is not accurate, Indonesia today has a law that

guarantees the protection of victims. Currently OBH

is a term that is trend in the community group.

However, it must be known that OBH is actually not

known in Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid

(UU Bantuan Hukum, 2011). Law concerning Legal

1706

Rosmalinda, . and Lubis, T.

Advocacy of Legal Aid Organizations: A Challenge in Handling Sexual Violence Case against Girls.

DOI: 10.5220/0010096017061710

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1706-1710

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

Aid only recognizes the terms "Legal Aid

Institutions" and "Community Organizations".

However, nowadays, the terminology of OBH is

more popular rather than other terms in legal aid

context. People who need legal assistant can take the

form of a foundation, legal Aid Centre (Pos Bantuan

Hukum/Posbakum), legal aid institution (Lembaga

Bantuan Hukum/LBH), etc., In regard to the popular

term, hereinafter referred to as OBH. Based on this

situation, this paper will discuss about legal

assistance carried out by OBH in Medan for children

victims of sexual violence. This legal assistance can

be in the form of legal consultation and assistance at

the court level.

This research is intended to examine and answer

the main problems regarding the advocacy model of

OBH in providing protection for children victims of

sexual violence. Furthermore, this main problem

was developed into 2 research questions such as

what is the model of community advocacy for girl

victims of sexual violence in Medan? And what is

the challenge for OBH in providing protection like

the girls victims of sexual violence in Medan?

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research was conducted using empirical

normative research in order to figure out the

implementation of Law No 35/2014 as an amended

Law no 23/2002 concerning child protection and

Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid (Irianto,

2013). The study analyzed the norms contained in

the legislation and continued with proof empirically

involving key informants so that the problems being

discussed can be obtained. The location of the

research was Medan as the capital of Sumatera Utara

province. This research involved informants or

resource persons in in-depth interviews and focused

discussions of 11 staff from 5 Ministry of Law and

Human Rights partners who provided legal

assistance to the community in Medan City. The

interview guide is used by researchers when

conducting in-depth interviews and Focused

Discussions.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSS

The amendment to Law No 23 year 2002 concerning

child protection which now became Law No 35 year

2014 is a form of Indonesia's responsibilities and

obligations in accordance with the mandate of the

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) article

4 which has been ratified by Indonesia through

Presidential Decree No. 36 of 1990 (Rumble et.al,

2018). The steps taken by the Indonesian

government by changing the UUPA are legislative

steps. The government's obligation is not to be here

in child protection, the UUPA mandates the role of

the community in the implementation of child

protection which is carried out by involving

community organizations, academics, and child

observers.

Thus, community organizations, academics and

observers of children should go directly to the field

to do prevention by doing a lot of education in terms

of protection for children, so that cases of crime

against children (especially sexual crimes) which

recently haunt many can be minimized.

Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, a research

institute that focuses on issues of civil liberties and

human rights in Canada, shares the concept of access

to justice, one of which includes advocacy for those

who cannot afford it. This concept holds that the aim

of access to justice is to provide legal assistance to

people who cannot afford legal services (The Law

Society of Canada, 2014). In this case, the OBH

plays a role in providing legal assistance to girls who

are victims of sexual violence who seek justice for

themselves. One way to access justice can be seen in

the legal regulations concerning OBH through Law

No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Aid.

Furthermore, the existence of OBH in the

framework of the legal objectives itself uses the

opinion of Gustav Radbruch. According to Gustav

Radbruch there are three legal objectives known

namely justice, legal certainty, and legal benefits

which using by these three legal objectives.

However, justice must occupy the first and foremost

position of certainty and benefit. Of the three legal

objectives, it cannot be carried out jointly because as

is known, in reality there is often a conflict between

legal certainty and legal benefit, or between justice

and legal certainty, or between justice and

expediency (Arifin, 1994).

Relating to this research, the girl of a victim of

sexual crime must obtain justice in the form of a

legal process of the perpetrator who committed the

crime against him. Moreover, the girl of the victim

of sexual crime gets legal certainty in the form of the

conviction of the perpetrator of the crime in

accordance with the laws and regulations. Finally,

the law against girls victims of sexual crimes can be

beneficial for themselves as victims and for

perpetrators in the form of deterrent effects

According to the Annual Report on the

Implementation of Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning

legal assistance issued by the Ministry of Law and

Human Rights, there are 593 OBH who registered

into the verification process. From there were 310

Advocacy of Legal Aid Organizations: A Challenge in Handling Sexual Violence Case against Girls

1707

OBHs who passed verification and accreditation in

2013. In reality, not all of the 310 OBHs had legal

status; therefore BPHN gave them the time and

opportunity to take care of the legal entity status.

After the deadline given by BPHN there were 12

OBH who were unable to obtain legal status, so that

the remaining 298 LBH were declared valid as OBH

(Ibrani, 2015).

The study, entitled "Community Advocacy

Models for Girls Victims of Sexual Violence in

Medan City" discussed about OBH in Medan City.

Data from the Regional Office of the Ministry of

Law and Human Rights of Sumatera Utara province

states that there are 17 accredited Legal Aid

Organizations in the Sumatera Utara province 2016-

2018 Period. However, only 11 accredited OBHs are

in Medan City. The forms of OBH include

foundations, legal aid bureau, legal aid institutions,

CSOs and associations.

These OBHs are managed by individuals, groups

and even universities. Although the form of OBH

varies but the aim is the same, namely to provide

legal assistance to anyone who needs it as mandated

in Law No. 16 of 2011 concerning Legal Assistance,

in Article 1 number 1 stating legal assistance is legal

services provided by Legal Aid Providers free of

charge to Legal Aid Recipients. In Medan there were

only 6 OBHs in Medan whose focus of legal

assistance was given to girls who were victims of

sexual violence in Medan City who carried out legal

advocacy namely litigation and non-litigation.

3.1 Model of Community Advocacy

Girl Victims of Sexual Violence

The community represented by OBH provides legal

assistance in litigation and non-litigation. Litigation

is part of critical education which is the provision of

legal assistance to the community in achieving

justice. Non litigation is the provision of legal

assistance in the form of counseling to the

community so that the community gets an

understanding of their rights which has been

recognized by advocacy is often regarded as one of

the strategic actions aimed at solving social

problems.

Table 1: Type of Advocacy of OBH in Medan.

No Name of OBH T

e of Advocac

1 Pusat Kajian dan

Perlindungan Anak

Medan (PKPA)

Litigation and non

litigation

2 Yayasan Pusat

Advokasi Anak Indonesia

Litigation

(Yay. Pusaka)

3 Yayasan Lembaga

Bantuan Hukum Trisila

Nusantara

Litigation and non

litigation

4 Perkumpulan

Lembaga Bantuan

Hukum Menara

Keadilan

Litigation and non

litigation

5 Biro Bantuan

Hukum Universitas

Muhammadiyah

Sumatera Utara

Litigation

6 Lembaga Bantuan

Hukum APIK Medan

Litigation and non

litigation

In the case of assistance, starting from the time

the child reports until the child enters the trial stage,

he must be accompanied by the Indonesian Child

Protection Commission (Komisi Perlindungan Anak

Indonesia/KPAI) along with the Legal Aid Institute,

both from the perpetrator and the victim can be

accompanied, to the supervision of the court process.

The victim was accompanied by a verdict while the

victim was accompanied so that the victim's family

would not be harmed as experienced by one of the

OBH who became the informant. (Interview on 4

October 2016).

Not only, LBH who advocate for children

victims of sexual violence but also there is also a

Correctional Centre (Balai Pemasyarakatan/

BAPAS). BAPAS is an institution that conducts

community research under the Ministry of Law and

Human Rights. BAPAS conducts advocacy, when

girls enter the legal process, for example, when

investigating the police. BAPAS will conduct

monitoring to ensure that the treatment obtained by

children as victims of sexual violence will not be the

same as adult victims. BAPAS ensures that there

must be good communication with the victim's

parents so that we know the needs of the victim so as

to achieve good advocacy for the child victims of

sexual violence. So the model of advocacy must be

supported by the parents of the victims of sexual

violence.

The results of interviews with other informants

stated that the advocacy model was litigation and

non-litigation.

"... The advocacy carried out by our

institution is for example paralegal education,

this is done specifically for groups of community

groups, whose children are victims. Groups that

have the same problem, whose children are

victims, they are given related training to be a

companion in the community, because they have

personal experience so that they can socialize to

the community, but must be trained first.

Moreover, this training is aimed at people whose

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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areas are vulnerable to cases of sexual violence

... "(in-depth interview on 13 October 2016).

It was further stated that advocacy was also

carried out in the form of litigation;

"... in litigation, namely assistance to the

Court, namely from the process of the victim

asking for help to PKPA, the process starts from

mentoring in the community, investigating the

police, investigating the prosecutor's office until

the court process. When PKPA advocates for

girls who are victims of sexual violence, the

victim must get good legal services until the case

can be resolved properly so that the victims get

justice and legal certainty, examples of non-

litigation advocacy such as advocacy for the

government, how the government can produce

more policy regulations both in handling cases

against children, such as disseminating,

campaigning to stop child sexual violence in the

community ... "(in-depth interview on 13

October 2016).

At the end of the study it was found that there

were three models of advocacy for OBH for girls

victims of sexual violence in Medan, namely:

juridical or legal protection, psychologically, and

medically. The explanation for these models was

obtained from participants when conducting FGDs.

The legal advocacy model is to provide assistance -

assistance or emphasize to Investigators, Prosecutors

and Courts to immediately process the perpetrators

legally. After that, escort the process to run

according to the laws and regulations.

The model of psychological advocacy is to help

girls who are victims of sexual violence by inviting

them to talk and chat and establish communication

with the parents of the victims, but it is endeavored

that the child does not remember the events that

happened to her.

The model of medical advocacy is to help girls

who are victims of sexual violence in the form of

mentoring to clinics or hospitals to get treatment, if

there is physical violence they experience

3.2 Challenges for OBH in Advocating

Sexual Violations Cases

Some informants stated that the problem of OBH in

carrying out advocacy for girls victims of sexual

violence was law enforcement officers (APH) such

as the police.

“..Law enforcers, namely the police when

receiving reports of sexual crimes, there are still

many who think to resolve the case by marrying

the victim to the perpetrator. Not only the police

but at the time of the judge's trial in handling

cases that contain... "(FGD, 16 October 2016)

The research findings that show that marrying

victims with perpetrators is another form of child

sexual violence. This is based on the fact that

marriages that hold by girls, victims of sexual

violence, will not only affect on not fulfilling her

rights as children, right of education for instant.

Moreover, she will drop out of school and trap in

household which place her in a risky situation of

being victim of domestic violence (Rosmalinda &

Sirait, 2018).

Not only is the mindset of the police officers

who "make it easier" to resolve cases of sexual

violence, but their attitude is not in favor of the

victims.

"... an element of sexual violence when asked

about his opinion on the case ... often expressing

opinions and questions that are not in favor of

the victim's daughter ..." (FGD, 16 October

2016)

The statement of informants in this FGD

strengthened the revelation of other informants when

an in-depth interview was conducted:

"... Law enforcement officers, namely the police

in the case of investigations in the verbal

process, such as the police statement, sometimes

are actually not statements that help the

psychological recovery of victims who are

children but instead break. Victims are still often

blamed and not given what kind of protection

they need ... "(in-depth interview, 27 September

2016)

The challenges that were found were not only found

by OBH from APH but also from the applicants for

assistance

"... In this case there are legal aid applicants who

live in remote areas and have not received

socialization of legal assistance, so that the

applicant did not bring SKTM when he came to

OBH ...." (FGD, 16 October 2016)

After conducting in-depth interviews and FGDs, this

study obtained the things that were a challenge in the

implementation of advocacy carried out by OBH

namely; (a) Regulations concerning child protection

are good but at the level of implementation they are

still weak, one of the weaknesses is OBH in terms of

handling to protect victims in terms of reducing the

psychological burden of victims not found a suitable

place as safe house or in other words facilities that

are less supportive. (b) Law enforcement officials as

legal structures that have effectiveness and

knowledge about child protection are also very

limited. (c) Lack of evidence, in the case of special

advocacy for female child victims is a lack of

evidence, so the case often stops in the middle of the

Advocacy of Legal Aid Organizations: A Challenge in Handling Sexual Violence Case against Girls

1709

road. (d) There are requirements that must be met in

obtaining legal assistance for the child who is still a

child of sexual violence, namely a Certificate of Not

Able to cause a long handling procedure because of

the difficulty in administering this matter causing

delays in the mentoring process. (e) The location of

the client's residence that is far from the OBH office.

4 CONCLUSIONS

This study concludes that OBH who deal with girls

who are victims of sexual violence in Medan City

are still few. There are only 6 (five) OBH which

using three patterns of advocacy for OBH for girls

victims of sexual violence in the city of Medan,

namely: protection, psychologically, and medically.

Furthermore, advocacy patterns that are perceived as

effective, namely non-litigation in the form of

counseling to the public for prevention of violence

sexual behavior for children and the cultivation of

knowledge about reproductive health and healthy

internet for children. As recommendation, it is

expected that in 2018, the number of OBH verified

by Kemenkumham will be at least 1 OBH in 1

district so that children in cases of sexual violence

can be protected.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Research and Service

Institute of Universitas Sumatera Utara who

supported the authors to implement research

program through TALENTA research scheme of

Fiscal Year 2016 based on the Rector Letter

Number: 568/UN5.1.R/SK/SPB/2016.

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