Kata Kunci

Abstrak

Indonesia has experienced very dynamic advocacy for legal reform on the protection of victims of sexual violence. Incidents of sexual violence have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper considers three major ‘initiatives’ used to address sexual violence in Indonesia: first, the establishment of alternative policy mechanisms outside the traditional criminal justice system by law enforcement; second, the Criminal Code Bill and Government of Indonesia under the Ministry of Law and Human Rights; and third, the establishment of the anti-sexual violence bill for victim protection initiated by parliament and supported by women’s movements. All of these initiatives have claimed to incorporate principles of restorative justice within their approach, with the impact of COVID-19 being one of the arguments. This paper analyzes whether the pursuit of restorative justice is an appropriate response for victims of sexual violence. The pursuit of restorative justice is one of many ambitious strategies to reform criminal justice mechanisms. This becomes increasingly problematic when the indicator of restorative justice is unclear. This paper finds that both the Criminal Code Bill and the Anti-Sexual Violence Bill have integrated some elements of restorative justice into the criminal justice system, with the latter focusing more on the rights of the victims of sexual violence. Prior to the enactment of these bills, there were some existing policies calling for restorative justice for victims of sexual violence. Given the lack of clarity surrounding the meaning of restoring the rights of victims of sexual violence or how this could be measured, it was difficult to support victims or assess their restorative progress. This policy tends to neglect victims of sexual violence in favor of the offender’s interest. Without a formal definition and appropriate indicators to regulate it (i.e., with no clear aim), new policies seeking to protect victims of sexual violence and move toward restorative justice will remain challenging to implement.