Kartu ternyata bisa berfungsi sebagai alat komunikasi, untuk mengungkapkan isi hati. Seringkali, kartu digunakan untuk mengungkapkan hal-hal yang "positif" seperti penggalian cerita tentang diri sendiri, cita, mimpi-mimpi dan harapan. Namun kali ini, saya menggunakannya sebagai alat komunikasi mengungkapkan hal-hal yang "negatif", seperti keluhan dan kritikan-kritikan. Sejak lama, banyak kritikan dan keluhan dari para staff baik yang gamblang disuarakan maupun melalui bisik-bisik yang terdengar samar-samar. Sudah lama saya merasa tertantang untuk menggali dan mengelola kritik dan keluhan ini untuk perkembangan dan kemajuan lembaga. Saya gunakan kartu karena pengungkapan keluhan dan kritikan dengan cara yang "biasa" atau "normal" seringkali berujung pada kekesalan, saling salah-menyalahkan dan luapan emosi semata yang berpotensial untuk mengaburkan pokok bahasan. Jadi saya mencobanya dengan kartu.
Akhirnya, hari minggu 16 Maret yang lalu, saya mencoba menggunakan metode penyampaian dengan kartu untuk mengelola kritikan dan keluhan para staff. Seharian itu staff pendukung berkumpul di ruang diskusi perpustakaan hukum Daniel S. Lev. Peneliti yang hadir hanya saya dan Maryam. Saya hadir karena posisi struktural (sementara) dan Maryam saya undang untuk mengenalkan masalah-masalah kelembagaan kepada peneliti muda. Biar tidak hanya memikirkan penelitian dan kariernya semata, tapi juga punya kepedulian pada lembaga.
Saya memakai dua set kartu berisi gambar-gambar binatang. Pinjaman dari Erni (dasar fasilitator tak bermodal hehe). Kami duduk melingkar. Suasana dibuat cukup santai. Posisi pun dibiarkan bebas. Bisa sembari duduk, tiduran, senderan, berdiri atau yang lainnya. Saya sebarkan kartu-kartu bergambar binatang itu di hadapan kami membentuk lingkaran (meniru cara mbak budhsi vibran, hehe). Instruksinya adalah memilih kartu yang merepresentasikan masalah-masalah mereka, utamanya mengenai posisi mereka sebagai staff di PSHK. Mulanya sebagian belum memahami instruksi ini. Mungkin belum terbayang akan seperti apa jadinya. Tapi mereka mau mencoba.
Ada yang memilih satu, dua hingga tiga kartu. Sengaja saya bebaskan jumlah kartu yang bisa mereka pilih. Sebagian bingung memilih, sebagian langsung memilih dan sibuk merangkai kata-kata yang menjelaskan makna kartu yang mereka pilih. Lalu tibalah momen untuk saling berbagi menjelaskan kartu yang mereka pilih beserta maknanya. Berikut kartu-kartu yang mereka pilih (untuk keperluan menjaga identitas pribadi, sengaja tidak saya sebutkan namanya).
Kartu
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Jolanda Goldberg, Perempuan dibalik Penyusunan Sistem Katalog Library of Congress
Library of Congress merupakan salah satu perpustakaan yang berpengaruh di dunia. Perpustakaan terbesar dan terlengkap di seantero Amerika Serikat. Sejarahnya hampir sepanjang sejarah negara Amerika Serikat sendiri. Ia merupakan bagian dari mimpi Thomas Jefferson. Bagian dari institusi demokrasi yang dibangun di awal sejarah berdirinya Amerika Serikat.
Bila kita melihat catatan sejarah mengenai Library of Congress, anda akan menemukan uraian panjang sejarah terbentuknya, koleksi yang sangat ekstensif, kemegahan gedung, bangunan serta infrastruktur di dalamnya. Bagi pustakawan, satu hal yang bisa ditambahkan adalah sistem katalog yang dimilikinya, Library of Congress Catalogue atau dikenal dengan sebutan LC System. Yang menarik buat saya dari LC System ini yang mungkin luput dari catatan sejarah (setidaknya yang tidak tercatat di wikipedia maupun sumber-sumber lain yang dapat diakses oleh internet hehe), adalah Jolanda Goldberg, wanita warga negara Amerika asal Jerman, penyusun LC System.
Nama Jolanda Goldberg diperkenalkan oleh Merry, salah satu ahli katalog di Library of Congress yang saya temui di Library of Congress. Merry juga memperlihatkan buku panduan LC System yang dibuat oleh Jolanda Goldberg. Sistem katalog LC ini digunakan di seluruh perpustakaan di Amerika Serikat.
[bersambung.. capek hehehe]
Bila kita melihat catatan sejarah mengenai Library of Congress, anda akan menemukan uraian panjang sejarah terbentuknya, koleksi yang sangat ekstensif, kemegahan gedung, bangunan serta infrastruktur di dalamnya. Bagi pustakawan, satu hal yang bisa ditambahkan adalah sistem katalog yang dimilikinya, Library of Congress Catalogue atau dikenal dengan sebutan LC System. Yang menarik buat saya dari LC System ini yang mungkin luput dari catatan sejarah (setidaknya yang tidak tercatat di wikipedia maupun sumber-sumber lain yang dapat diakses oleh internet hehe), adalah Jolanda Goldberg, wanita warga negara Amerika asal Jerman, penyusun LC System.
Nama Jolanda Goldberg diperkenalkan oleh Merry, salah satu ahli katalog di Library of Congress yang saya temui di Library of Congress. Merry juga memperlihatkan buku panduan LC System yang dibuat oleh Jolanda Goldberg. Sistem katalog LC ini digunakan di seluruh perpustakaan di Amerika Serikat.
[bersambung.. capek hehehe]
Monday, March 10, 2008
Participation and Power: A Transformative Feminist Research Perspective by Joke Schrijvers
This summary was done by a friend of mine, A. Rahman -red
This action research was undertaken among the people (Muslins and Tamils) staying in relief camps in
The main points are as follows-
1. Neo-positivist ideology in its bid to be neutral starts treating people as objects. The processes of collecting data, analyzing and writing it are presented as simple and transparent. But this research is not value free and in fact it obfuscates power relationship. First the agenda for research is set up by professional social scientists. Secondly, the researched has no say in it. Third they are objectified during research and lastly the research is merely academic and has no liberating influence. Thus focus of research is now shifting to a view from below in which Feminism has made a significant contribution by adding to the perspective from below the perspective of women.
2. In feminist theory and practice issues of knowledge, power, representation and authority have been dealt with deeply.Ethnic, race, class and age relation crosscuts gender, which makes this study more difficult. Another problem is how to create equitable relations during the research process and support envoicing of participants.
3. The postulate of value free research is to be replaced by conscious partiality. Critical consciousness and exchange are important elements of this research. The researcher takes side of certain group, partially identifies and in a conscious process creates space for critical dialogue and reflection on both sides. It raises new questions and images of reality in a dialectical way. If dialogues form the main communication process, the objects of research become subjects as well. They are conceptualized as social actors who themselves participate in the research and therefore co- determine the outcome. They too are constructing knowledge and interpreting reality. The out come is intersubjective and negotiated and there is no single reality.
Five elements of this dialogical communication can be identified-
1. Dynamic focus on change as opposed to status quo.
2.Exchange- researcher and researched continuously change places as both are subjects and objects, active and passive and their views are open for discussion.
3. The ideal of egalitarian relation- the researcher and the participants are aware of the power inequalities that separate them. By articulating such differences less powerful will feel assured about the efforts of the power full to take a perspective from below.
4. Shared objective- the priorities of the research are decided by all the participants.The researcher or the funding agency have no control over the process of the research or its out come.
5. Shared power to define- participants are empowered to construct concepts and categories, discuss results and determine the course and out come of the research.
There are some problems with this kind of research. For example the ultimate power to define the out come will be with the researcher who is going to write it and there is possibility that some of the perspectives are not correctly reflected as it has not been written jointly. Secondly dialogical communication is meant more for the situations where the other group is powerless. What about sharing the power to define with the more powerful. Envoicing their concern may lead to perpetuation of status quo.
Transformative approach-if the aim of the research is transformation backed by the perspective from below, we call it transformative approach. It aims at bridging the gap between theory and practice and supporting change from bottom up. However this term is complicated as poor it self are a heterogeneous group. As researcher we are intellectual intermediary in this transformation and we have to make choice as to in whose interest, out of the heterogeneous reality, we use our perspectivee.How relevant is the acquired knowledge for their perspective? What are the possibilities of returning the insights gained, back to them?
If transformative research also involves direct action for change it is known as action or partisan research. The researcher takes sides with the people whose situation he wants to change. Thus all actors become engaged in a combined processor of research and action. One of the participants is facilitator. The decision to take side does not mean that the researcher has to accept the interpretation of the other actors. It means all parties create space to articulate their views so that they can exchange and discuss their interpretations
Participation in Context: Key Questions
Am sorry for not be able to provide the original sources (of reading). I think it's a summary from various articles or whatever. Well, I definitely needs to consume salmon omega-3 everyday, hehehe...
Key Questions on participatory development in terms of the practice and process of participatory research, planning and governance in the context of community development:
1. Why a participatory process ?
It is important to define the ends served and making them explicit in collaborative work. The end of participation includes the planners, the facilitators and the objective of the participants. This can be done through these steps:
- All should make their reasons explicit and then to attempt to reconcile differences.
- Participatory exercise can then be tailored to the various ends which the group decides to pursue
2. What ends does it serves?
- Participation as a means to specific ends - Instrumentalism
Instrumentalism Participation is an instrumental use of people and their participation by outsiders for the achievement of some implicit or intentionally concealed aim. It is hand in hand with mobilization, in terms of getting certain people to do something, even if it undermines their interests.
In some cases, people are unable to re-orient or resist inappropriate interventions, and projects are perpetrated upon them rather than being designed and carried out by and for themselves. Participatory process, combined with an explicit treatment of the objectives of the process itself, can prevent such abuses.
- Participation as an end in itself
It implies that men and women are learning, organizing, deciding, planning and acting, whether quickly or slowly, easily or painfully, and with or without a specific end. In some cases, the end is participation for its own sake in a first phase, so that people are in a position to define their own goals and to act on them in a second phase.
3. The Objectives of Participatory Research
There are many kinds of participatory research objectives which are:
- To extract information from people (the more common approach)
- To place outside researchers at the service of local communities or popular social movements.
- It is placed as collaborative efforts ranging from documentation of local experiments and innovations by professional scientists to farmer participation in outsider-designed agricultural and forestry experiments. We propose to join together people and institutions with very distinct traditions of acquiring and testing knowledge, and often, very different needs and uses for knowledge.
4. Participation and Relations of Power
To promote social change through participatory development, it is essential to understand better and to address the way that power is distributed and wielded. Therefore facilitators should do the following:
- Identifying the multiple actors within communities, as well as those who work within and between communities and others whose decisions affect local development from afar.
- Understanding power relations embedded in the culture and social structure within local communities, based on class ethnicity, religion, race, nationality, ideology, etc.
- Facilitator needs to consider carefully their choice of partners to organize and plan activities, whose interests to address and whom to include in any given event.
5. Whose Interests, whose voices, whose actions
· The community is not a homogenous group.
Individuals may identify more of less strongly with gender, class, ethnicity or religion, depending on their own experience and the current context. These attributes also interact. Culture and social relations are not static with respect to gender, class, caste or other dimensions of difference.
· The groups (in the community) will shift on the basis of the context and the issues at stake, i.e. people shared interests on a specific issues, coalitions between very distinct groups with a common goal or broader affinities among groups and between individuals. Therefore, facilitators need to grapple not only with difference, but with a multitude of different possible groupings and beyond that, a shifting constellation of groups with flexible boundaries. They must also confront the question of how actively they will promote the participation and follow-up actions of the less powerful groups.
6. The Temporal Context
· It is important to situate the origin of problems and opportunities in time, as well as the groups involved, and the nature of our interventions/partnerships, in order to choose the time horizon of participatory research, planning and action agendas.
· Participation need not be associated with either one-time appraisals or a life-time residential commitment, but should reflect an honest search for the most appropriate time frames suited to the context of the place, the people, the partnerships and the scope of changes contemplated.
· There are several ways to match the time frame of analysis with the topic, the actors and the scope of their concerns, includes the time frame for:
- understanding the current situations: (i) to understand the history of the current situation in any given places and of any given group, including individual life histories, the history of specific groups and communities, etc; (ii) the history encompass social, cultural, economic, environmental changes, etc through people’s lives and landscapes, and are seldom written. conducting research
- planning activities
- implementing plans
with considering the time limits (for example immediate future -3 years, longer time frames for planning and actions -10-20years, etc) and the institutional concerns (e.g. the actors in the process).
7. Where to Focus Participation
The ‘popular’ participation are usually located in public meetings, where ‘local people’ and officials engage in planning discussions about local problems and proposed development solutions. Basically, participation could take place in national policy discussions and legislative process as well as in small, quite meetings between family members, neighbours, or members of particular groups based on occupation, class, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or other bases of identity and difference.
8. Addressing the Problems
· Close attention to the appropriate scale of problem definition, analysis and action can make a major difference in the quality of participation, the rate of participation, and the representation of all groups involved in a given process. It also could influence the outcome, both overall and for particular groups.
· To address the problems of one community group at a given time and place may require a much broader look at the regional and national context, as well as a closer look at the daily lives and landscapes of individuals and particular groups. In order to do this, the steps are:
1) The explorations of problems and opportunities at multiple scales, always looking at larger and smaller-scale process that influence of influenced by any given problem.
2) The process, with special attention to the size and nature of the social unit of resource users and stakeholders and the size of the landscape units involved in various stages of participatory initiatives.
3) The size and nature of the landscape area and the social units for follow-up action will vary with the type of problem and the context. Careful attention to the scale of both social organization and ecological units can improve the quality and outcome of each of these stages of participatory activity.
The Narratives in Clifford Geertz’s “Which Way to Mecca?”
Abstract
Islam has become the main concern of the media, the society, even the governments, due to many kind of “terrorist” activities, for example September eleven (11/09), Kuta beach, suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, the Iraq war and so on and so forth. Suddenly, Islam has become a contested terrain. A lot of writings from different perspectives are published in order to give information to the public about what the Islam is. They are the narratives of Islam which is thrown away to the public domain. These writings or narratives also represent responses and reactions, which include not only understanding but also warnings, reassurances, advices or attacks (Geertz, pp. 27). It also has impacts on the social practices, ranging from the daily lives of the people in general to the government’s policy. In Clifford Geertz’s “Which Way to
A. The Big Story and The Story Tellers
1. The Big Story of Understanding Islam
In “Which Way to
especially after the September eleven’s attack on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. This phenomenon was reflected in many kinds of writings and books about Islam that have been published. In the process, “understanding Islam” had become a contested issue. According to Clifford, this writings represent responses and reactions, which include not only understanding but also warnings, reassurances, advices or attacks (Geertz, pp. 27). Therefore, as explained by Geertz, understanding Islam had many approaches which divide and bound the overall field of argument and interpretation. The four approaches are: (i) the civilization approach which opposes the “west” as a whole to Islam; (ii) defining the various streams of contemporary Muslim thought and practices based on political expression; (iii) conciliate efforts seeking out “many are the roads but God is one”; (iv) studies that conceive Islam less as a cohesive mega entity persisting through time than as a collection of particular in the context of the vast and entangling forces of all over modernity advance (Geertz, pp. 27). These are the meta-narratives or the four mainstream narratives of understanding Islam.
2. Locating the Author and the Narrators
The article was written by Clifford Geertz, a well-known anthropologist. Geertz introduced four narratives in the article. Each narrative has different perspectives or aspects and written by different authors from different backgrounds. These authors are the story tellers. Geertz is also criticized them and gave his opinion which was also reflected in the title, “Which Way to
Clifford Geertz was in the US Navy during the World War II before he took a carrier as an anthropologist. He had studied at
The story tellers or the narrators in the articles are: Bernard Lewis, M.J. Akbar, Thomas W. Simons, Jr. and Karen Armstrong. In his article, Geertz gave some information of their backgrounds. Bernard Lewis is a famous orientalist, well-educated in Islamic studies-, and also an adviser to the
B. The Events, the Narratives and the Resulting Social Practices
Some authors points out the September Eleven (11/09) as their main event in the narratives, while others not. Akbar took the civil war in
1. The Narratives
The first narrative was from Bernard Lewis in his two books that were written before and after 11/09. In his book that he wrote before 11/09, he argued that Muslims are caught up in a confused and resentful mourning over the loss of a cultural primacy that was once theirs and has now been lost (Geertz, pp. 28). He also points out how the Muslims worlds were changing through the history because the external factors which is the crucial events and changes in the world that surrounds them. He also brought in the Christian-Muslim history into his narrative. On the other hand, in his latter book that was written after the 11/09, he described the attacks as “the latest phase in a struggle that has been going on for more than four centuries” (Geertz, pp. 28). Moreover, he also mention about “the holy war and unholy terror” and argued that this had became a threat to the world as a whole.
The resulting social practice can be seen in the daily practices from the level of society up to the government, particularly in the
The second narrative is written by M.J. Akbar. The event is civil war in Kashmir, originated in the history of conflicts between
The third narrative was written by Thomas W. Simons Jr. His main event was over the entire course of its thirteen-hundred-year career and added the impacts of the globalization, particularly after the fall of communism (Geertz, pp. 29). According to Simon, the idea of globalization has emerged as common denominator in analyses of the world affairs. He argued that globalization is the main power in driving and directing the pace of change, including the Islamic society. He divided the history of Islam into: (i) the early Islam where most of them were lived in agricultural economy; (ii) 18th century and the imperialism which led to a “progressive simplification and brutalization of the increasingly revivalistic Islamic discourse; (iii) the 1970s globalization which led and driven by coal, steel, petroleum and information technology. He described Islam as “the world’s most powerful engine, agent, and vehicle of globalization, and … [its] most sharply contested battleground” (Geertz, pp. 29). It then caused the dispersion of religious authority, the weakening of the nation-state, the failure of “defensive modernization” and conduced to a new radicalism that caused the September eleven, thirty years later. Thus, he argued that the 11/09 attacks was the results of an old problem that originated at least 30 years before.
The fourth narrative was by Karen Armstrong. She tacked and portrayed the course of Muslim history as a temporal unfolding from a revelatory foundation, the carrying forth of a settled faith into an unsettled world. She did not focus on any particular events, but she emphasizes on the historical aspects of Islam “through the eyes of faith of external history” in more comprehensive way. It included from the assassinations, wars, dynasties which was seen as temporal unfolding history as “primitive” to revelatory moments, for example Muhammad in
2. The Competing Narratives
The narratives in the article, to some extend, were competing to each other. The competing narratives existed: (i) among narrators and; (ii) between Geertz and the narrators.
1. Lewis and Armstrong
The meta-narrative was the “understanding Islam”. Some narratives, like Armstrong’s, were more comprehensive than the others. Comparing to Lewis, Armstrong gave a deeper insight of what Islam is and also the fact that you could found the similar situation in other religion, while Lewis placed Islam as dangerous power, a threat to the world. As quoted by Geertz:
Bernard Lewis | Karen Armstrong |
If the [Muslim fundamentalists] can persuade the world of Islam to accept their views and their leadership, then a long and bitter struggle lies ahead, and not only for America, Europe… is now home to a large and rapidly growing community, and many Europeans are beginning to see its presence as… a threat. Sooner or later, Al-Qa’ida and related groups will clash and the other groups will clash with the other neighbors of Islam – | The historical trials and tribunalitons of the Muslim community –political assassinations, civil wars, invasions, and the rise and fall of the ruling dynasties –were not divorced from the interior religious quest, but were of the essence of the Islamic vision. A Muslim would meditate upon the current events of his time and upon past history as a Christian would contemplate an icon, using the creative imagination to discover the…divine kernel. An account of the external history of the Muslim people [is not] of mere secondary interest, since one of the chief characteristics of Islam has been its sacralization of history. |
2. Geertz: Which Way to Mecca
Geertz also criticized the four story tellers. In his opinion, “Akbar, Lewis, and Simons see Islamic Civilization in the perspective of its reactions to what surrounds it, to what confronts it, and what it confronts – the west, the east, globalization – than it is to the promptings, whatever they might be, of its spiritual character. It is its encounters with others, rather than wit itself, that have shaped it”. He was also saying that, “The lack of concern with specifically religious conceptions and specifically spiritual motivation in most of the “understanding” Islam literature does produce something of a Hamlet without the Prince effect”. Moreover, he also points out the credibility and reliability of the narrators, for example he criticized Simon as “there are almost citations than there are sentences”.
The article “Which Way to
[1] http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/geertz_clifford.html, accessed on February 2006.
Collective Action on Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) for Violence against Women (VAW) Cases in Indonesia (2)
I. Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) for Violence Against Women (VAW) Cases in
Women experience violence and torture both in situations of conflict and where there is no `formal’ conflict (P. Sen 1998) --as also apply in the case of
A. Framing the Policy: The Legal Substances, Legal Structure, the Legal Culture and the Problem of Intersection
The causes of ineffective legal system which is responsive in handling VAW cases are stemmed from the three pillars that form the legal system itself: the legal substance, the legal structure and the legal culture (INCW 2004).
Firstly, the legal substances refer to the material or the content of law and regulations related to VAW, including both substantive and procedural or administrative law. It encompasses not only the recognition and protection of women’s rights but also placing women as a subject and not as an object of cases during the legal proceedings. The conventions, UN Declaration and any other international law documents stand as a basis to eliminate gender biases within the existing laws and regulations. Many international legal documents related to VAW have not been properly adopted within the National legislation. It also causes by the lack of enforcement of such international documents.
Secondly, the legal structures involve the infrastructure and organization of legal institutions in handling VAW cases. The well-coordinated and well-organized legal institutions would create effectiveness and efficiency within the bureaucracy and administration of the legal proceedings. In many cases, many criminals could get away from the sentences because of “administrative justice” reason which cause by insufficient administrative requirements and procedures. It also related to how the legal institutions provide a gender-responsive service, infrastructure and information in handling the VAW cases such as: (i) the special units of investigation room for VAW cases within the Police Department; (ii) medical and/or psychological help for the victims; (iii) information and legal protection and assistances during the court proceedings.
Thirdly, the legal cultures involves the perception and understanding of the legal apparatus and the society on the issue of VAW. These perceptions are embedded in culture and religion, in relation to the perception of “good women”. Many people in Indonesia still believe that a good woman should not be seductive as to expose her body to the public, which could stimulate violence. Some people still believe that violence occurred because of the woman poses herself in a seductive way. In domestic violence cases, it also related to the concept of a good wife who has the obligation to fulfill (and submissive) to their husband’s needs. These conception of a seductive women reflected in the attitute of legal apparatus to the women as victims during the legal proceedings in which victims could be treated as the ‘criminal’ as reported by Indonesian National Commission on Women (INCW) and many other women’s organizations.
B. Elimination of Domestic Violence Act (2004)
Following the Asian crisis which led to economic and political distress in 1998,
It was started with the EDV bill that had been prepared by a network of women’s movements since 1997. The Parliament finally passed it on
The basis for the EDV bill was:
1. Humanity, justice and equality values.
2. The constitution (whicad been amended)
3. Law No. 7 Year 1984 on the ratification of CEDAW.
4. National Action Plan on Elimination of Violence Against Women, 1999.
5. Law No. 39 Year 1999 on the protection of Human Rights and Law No. 26 Year 2000 on
6. President’s Instruction No. 9 Year 2000 on Gender Mainstreaming
The UN VAW Declaration defines domestic violence as: “Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation”. Basically, the contents of the Indonesian EDV Act are:
The Indonesian EDV Act
1. The Main Arguments
· Every citizen entitled to rights to be secured and to freedom from any form of violence based on the Pancasila (the Nation’s ideology) and the Constitution.
· Any forms of domestic violence are considered as violating human rights and thus, become crimes against humanity;
· The state and society have to protect the victims of domestic violence, which are usually the women.
· The EDV Act is based on the human rights, gender equality and justice, non-discriminatory and the protection for the victims.
2. The scope of the Act
· Domestic violence that occurs within: (i) the nuclear family (husband, wife and children); (ii) the extended families; (iii) the people who work and stay at the house, i.e domestic workers.
· An act of violence on an individual, particularly women.
3. Types of domestic violence
· Physical violence which causes pain, sickness and severely injured.
· Psychological violence which is any action that causes fear, losing self-confidence, and eliminating the capability to act, the feeling of helpless and psychological torture.
· Sexual violence: (i) against people who stay and work at the house (i.e domestic worker); (ii) sexual violence against any person which is conducted within the house for commercial or any other purposes
· Economic violence, including if one limits and forbids his/her spouse to work which cause his/her economic dependency other one’s control.
4. The obligation to secure and protect the rights (the role occupant)
In providing protection and rehabilitation for the victims, the EDV Act relies on the state, the legal system (the police, general attorney office, the judiciary and legal practioners), society in general (the medical profession, social worker and religious counselor) and from the family.
The EDV Act became a legal foundation in handling domestic violence which is not covered in any Indonesian legislation, particularly on the Criminal Code and the Criminal Law Procedures Code. In addition, the EDV Act introduces new legal proceedings in providing evidences where it only requires one witness and one eligible proof. Therefore, in the case of rape, the victim’s testimony and one visum et repertum or medical record from the doctor as a proof are considered legally enough for evidences.
However, the EDV Act has some weakness and limitations. Firstly, table 4 shows the implementation of the capability approach and the reliance to the state in securing the rights and providing the protection and rehabilitation without considering that the state (machineries) and the society is not gender-neutral and it raises the question of gender awareness and gender responsiveness of the state machineries, especially the legal institutions. Secondly, it excludes marital rapes which stimulated public debates inside and outside the Parliament. There were 3 bills submitted by the Parliament, the Government and the Women’s NGOs (Indriati 2004). The Moslem conservative religious group in the Parliament did not agree that marital rapes as a form of domestic violence. However, the women’s movements played an important role as they were intensively advocating the EDV Act. They came to all meetings inside and outside the Parliament and formed an unofficial faction which was called by the media as the “balcony faction” (because they usually sit on the balcony during the Parliament’s sessions). The EDV bill was finally passed, with some notes from the religious party (the Reformation Faction)
However, the EDV Act is necessary but not sufficient. It should be supported within a broader legal framework. As a response to increasing pressures from women’s movements, in 2004 after the general elections, the Parliament launched a national legislation program (Prolegnas) which consists of a list of prioritized bills in 2005-2009 to reform the gender-biased law.[2] Along with this, the Indonesian National Commission on Women (INCW)[3] initiated to coordinate the collective action for the ICJS in handling VAW Cases.
C. Collective Action for the ICJS for VAW Cases
The collective action is focused on two areas. Firstly, the Parliament as explained above. Secondly, within the legal system as initiated by the INCW. It is involving the legal institutions, legal scholars and four influential women organizations (INCW, LBH-APIK, Derap Warapsari and Convention Watch).
1. What and Whose Policy
The collective action on ICJS for VAW Cases is a collective action within the legal system (the Supreme Court, the General Attorney Offices, The Legal Associations and the Police Department), the legal scholars and four women organizations under the coordination of the INCW.
Before the enactment of the program, there was an assumption that each institution did not have a gender responsive policy in handling VAW cases. However, it was found that they do have few internal policies related to VAW but it was ineffective, not well-coordinated, and not publish to the public. However, the policy is more general or focusing on the trafficking issue, not the domestic violances cases. The policies that were found are:
Table 5
The VAW Policy within the Legal Institutions
| Institution | Policies |
| The Supreme Court | Gender training as part of the education training for the judges (male and female) |
| The General Attorney Office | 1. The establishment of Gender Focal Point. 2. The internal guidance for each general attorney in handling cases on robbery with violence and rape in which the victims are usually women (SEJA No. B-409/ES/8/1996) |
| The Police | 1. Gender training for 500-1000 policewomen, particularly on traffiking. 2. The establishment of 230 special service investigation rooms in 26 provinces, especially for those citizens who have trafficking cases. 3. The establishment of 18 unit Integrated Service Centre, for cases related to women and children who need legal, medical and psychological help. In additional, the hospital (32) and NGOs (137) also provide centre for VAW cases. |
| The Legal Practitioner | The establishment of legal aids. |
The collective action program was two years program (2003-2005) focusing on the strengthening the legal institutions and was designed as:
2. The Site of Struggle: The Policy Environment of Collective Actions
To conclude, as a collective action, the policy should be put firstly, in to a broader context of a policy environment, so we could trace the question of who informs the policy making. The policy environment can be seen as:
This is the site of struggle in collective action. The main policy maker (the Government and the Parliament) are responsible for setting up the legal framework which then elaborated by each legal institutions within the legal system domain. The public domain, the medical profession and the social workers are the groups who informs and influence the policy-making process, whether to the main policy maker, the legal system or the public domain. On the other hand, the women’s movement is located in the public domain along with the NGOs. However, each bubble and each box within also represent a sub-site of struggles which often contradicts to each other; for example, the public domain is a site of conflicting arenas between each box within it and reflected in the Government or the Parliament as each box informs their knowledge and interest to them.
3. The Problems and Limitations
However, there were some limitations to the policy and the collective action. Firstly, putting the collective actions initiated by the women’s movement and the INCW into the policy environment picture, the collective actions were limited to some part of public domain giving informations and pressures to the main policy maker and the legal system. Moreover, it only focuses on reforming the legal substances through the EDV Act (with some limitations as explained before) and the legal structures. However, it could not solved the problems of legal culture (embedded in social structure, culture and religion) which made the limitation in the EDV Act (by excluding the marital rape) and ineffectiveness of the legal infrastructures (which had been reported that it was used as a place for reporters to take a break during their duties in getting the criminal news from the Police).
Secondly, the VAW approach which emphasizes on the women creates a negative impression on the collective actions itself. There has been increasing negativism related to VAW approach in domestic violence cases. Many cases show that men could also become the victims of domestic violence and women could also become the perpetrator against her husband or her children. Moreover, it also created negative sentiments over the women’s movement and even to the word of “feminist” itself which often placed as an opposition to religious norms and the good versus ‘radical’. It is reflected from the statements released by the Indonesian Council of Islamic Scholars (the MUI) to a daily conversations through internets.[4]
Thirdly, the reliance to the State created some problems. Not only the problems of cultures which was behind certain attitudes, but also the problem of financing such legal services in for special legal treatments for VAW cases, as also explained by Sen (1998) for those who fights VAW on the basis of efficiency arguments that VAW cases needs a lot of budget. It also relies on the power relations within the organizations which often do not give recognition and rewards for their apparatus who have gender awareness as reported by many gender-awareness-trained-policewomen (INCW 2004). Moreover, they also faced the unequal power relations from the policemen. It is well-known among them that a policeman is considered more potential that a policewomen in such a field work that can be considered as more “masculine”. These policemen were reported as not being pro-active in handling domestic violence questions and on the contrary, asking questions which cornered the victims (ibid). Therefore, it created gender-blindles within the organization. However, some retired policewomen established a women’s organization (DERAP Warapsari) which is also part of the network of INCW which advocating the collective action. It is hoped that they could help in giving pressures for reform within the Police Department.
4. The Problems of Intersection
The problem becomes more complex when we take on board the issue of intersection (Crenshaw 2000). According to the UN VAW Declaration (1994), some women’s groups are more vulnerable than the others. In the context of Indonesia: religions, cultures, social status and age.
Firstly, different religions and cultures form different types of marriage. Islam, the dominant religion, recognize the polygamy which is accomodated in the Indonesian marriage law (although in some part of Indonesia, there are also found polygini marriages practices). On the other hand, especially for public servants, the state only recognizes the first wife. Thus, a women who is a second wife and whose husband is a public servant becomes more vulnerable for domestic violence. She becomes even more vulnerable considering the society’s perception on the second wife who is considered as a bad women because she “steals” somebody’s husband. Thus, the (Islamic) marriage law should also be reformed. The influential religious organization are not gender-responsive to this issue which can be seen through their statements as explained before and also the polygamy campaign (a polygamy award, books on the “beauty” and the benefits of polygamy marriages and so on). However, the emergence of moslem feminists gives a new hope in providing new information and knowledge in re-reading and re-interpreting the existing gender-biased implementation of Quranic verses.
Secondly, although the domestic violence can happen to women despite her social status, but it determines the access to legal proceedings. Therefore, it needs infrastructures and resources to reach the people within the remote areas. On the other hand, a bottom-up approach to collective action could be an alternative solution. Some women’s organizations provide a free legal services for domestic violence cases. In return, after completing the legal proceedings, they become the legal apprentice to the organization and help to assist the ‘new’ victims. Therefore, it builds a network accross the social status. Since in many areas, people usually consult their domestic problems to the local religious leader, the challenge is to give pressures to these informal organizations to be more gender-responsive in handling the domestic violence problem regarding the enactment of EDV Act.
Thirdly, the younger women are more vulnerable to domestic violence than older women, especially if her mother is economically dependent to her husband. For example, in a case where a daughter had been raped by her step father, her mother went to the general attorney office, asking to not press “hard” charges against her husband (INCW 2004). She was crying because she economically dependent to her husband. One general attorney admitted her dilemma when she handled this case. On one hand, if she put maximum charges and the judge approve it, then it would destroy the economic life of both mother and daughter, while on the other hand, she thought that giving him maximum charges is the way to bring justice for the daughter. In practice, this “moral dilemma” determines the responsiveness of the legal apparatus.
II. Conclusion
To conclude, the impacts of human development framework are: (i) the top-down approach to secure women’s rights related to VAW cases, particularly on domestic violence in Indonesia by the enactment of EDV Act (2004) and the gender mainstreaming in Parliament through the Prolegnas; (ii) The reliance on the state to provide necessary actions and infrastructure needed. However, it did not recognized that the state is not gender-neutral. Moreover, it created the problem of the state capacity: (i) to reform their legal culture (which is stemmed from the unequal power relation within state machineries) and; (ii) to finance the infrastructure and resources needed.
On the other hand, the collective action initiated by the INCW and the women’s movement was framed in a broader interconnected policy environment as a site of struggle. It posed the challenge to build a broader network, involving formal and informal groups within the society. Moreover, it also posed the challenges to critically analyze the VAW approach to domestic violence and the problem of intersection in order to present a better understanding of violence cases among the society, particularly to the religious groups.
[1] The preamble of Indonesian EDV Act states that: (i) every citizen entitled to rights to be secured and to freedom from any form of violence based on the Pancasila (the Nation’s ideology) and the Constitution. (ii) Any forms of domestic violence are considered as violating human rights and thus, become crimes against humanity; (iii) the state and society have to protect the victims of domestic violence, which are usually the women.
[2] In 2005, there were seven prioritized bills which are: the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedures Code, the Witness Protection, the amendment of family law, the amendment of health law, the citizenship bill, and the anti-pornography bill.
[3] The Indonesian National Commission on Women was an independent institutions established by the Government in 1998 as a response to the VAW during the May riots which caused many women (especially from the Chinese ethnic) were being raped. The establishment of INCW is to prevent, handle and eliminate any forms of VAW.
[4] For an interesting conversation can be seen in the wanita-muslimah (meaning: Moslem women,
Collective Action on Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS) for Violence against Women (VAW) Cases in Indonesia (1)
I. Introduction
The collapse of an authoritarian government under Soeharto in 1998 marked the beginning of the legal reforms in Indonesia. The democratic atmosphere that came with the reform opened up political spaces for women’s movement under the framework of the legal reform. One of the most important moments was in 2004 when the Parliament finally passed the Elimination of Domestic Violence Act (EDV Act) after the women’s movement struggling for it for seven years. It was followed by the new political package act[1] passed by the Parliament which gave 30% quota for women in the Parliament and the introduction of a list of priotized bills related to women’s interests under the Prolegnas (national legislation program) 2004-2009 by the new elected Members of Parliament in 2004.
The advocacy for the EDV Act was done by a network of various NGOs, groups and individuals on the basis of crimes against humanity. It is hoped that the Anti-Domestic Violence Act and the bills that are being discussed in the Parliament could solve the Violence Against Women (VAW) cases in Indonesia which has been increasing over the years. According to the 2004 Annual Report of National Commission on Women, the number of VAW increased 62.9% in 2001-2002 and 14.9% in 2002-2003 as shown in table 1. Almost half of the cases were domestic violence. As elaborated in table 2, there were 2703 domestic violence cases against women out of 5934 or 46% cases in 2003.
However, having an EDV Act is necessary but not sufficient. The implementation of the Act highly depends on a broader legal system that supports it. Thus, the struggle still continues. The Indonesian National Commission on Women has been coordinating the advocacy for an integrated criminal justice system that is responsive to handle VAW cases. Basically, the objective is to reform the legal substances, legal structures and legal cultures within the legal system through a collective action that involving the judiciary, the attorney general office, the legal professionals and the police department.[2] The reform was driven by the needs to secure women’s rights in the legal proceedings, especially as the victim and (forced by situation) perpetrator.[3]
The objective of the essay is to elaborate how the Anti Domestic Violence Act as policy was being framed? And how we link it with the human development framework? What are the changes brought by the policy and what are the limitations? On the other part, it would also elaborate how a gender awareness and responsiveness approach in an integrated criminal justice system (ICJS) for VAW Cases as a collective action from the State Machineries (the legal system in particular) in Indonesia was being articulated and implemented?
To answer the question, the essay would explain a brief introduction to discussion on gender-based violence and the influences of the human development framework, as the theoretical framework. It will follow by how the policy was being framed, in relation to the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Declaration on Elimination of VAW (The UN VAW Declaration). Later on, the essay would elaborate the EDV Act –changes and limitations—, the policy environment, the collective action on ICJS for VAW cases and its problems and limitations and also problems of intersections.
II. Gender-Based Violence within the Human Development Framework
Human Development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical of these wide-ranging choices are to live a long and healthy life, to be educated and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom, guaranteed human rights and personal self-respect. Development enables people to have these choices
(Human Development Report, 1990)
In 1990s women’s movement around the world had make enormous struggle against VAW at different level, particularly to bring forward to the public the issue of VAW which had been seen as a private matter (Nair 2001). Violence against women has been seen as an obstacle to development, because it would constrain the efficiency of projects, limiting women’s participation and denying their human rights (Carillo 1992; P. Sen 1998) It is also considered as contradiction to Human Development (HD).
The HD framework is used as a model of development by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP). Basically, it is a model of development that places the human actor at the centre stage as a response to the negative impacts from development mainstream thought developed by the neo-liberals.[4] Its objective is towards human needs and promoting human values (Carillo 1992; Truong 2006). Human development is defined as a concern with the enlargement of people’s choices; it is a process which weaves development around people, not people around development (UNDP) or a development with a human face (UNICEF). Violence against women became a central issue, because it contradicts the process of widening choices (Bunch and Carrillo 1992 cited in P. Sen 1998).
A. Gender-Based Violence
In general, violence could be explored as: structural violence, related to totalizing knowledge and planning which has a historical and cultural dimension (Escobar 1992); rights denial, related to reproductive and sexual rights (Gita Sen 2005) and violence related to the issue of masculinities (Greig et al 2000). For the purpose of this essay, the term violence refers to a combination of structural violence and violence as rights denial.
According to Escobar (1992), the rise of social planning and increased intervention of the state and society does not take into consideration the social injustice of women at the domestic level and shapes the social structure accordingly by constructing themselves as subjects. He also addressed the issue on how the knowledge possessed by rural women and indigenous groups are not recognized by the planners particularly on patriarchy, violence and social structure. Thus, the planners construct a different way of thinking and acting for conceiving social change where social change is a result of a change in human experience with proper analysis and planned changes as objects. Therefore, the challenge is how to implement this bottom-up approach in capturing personal experiences on violence into policy planning.
On the other hand, violence as rights denial elaborated by Gita Sen is looking at the social and economic subordination and oppression of women which entails the gender power relations in the household and the society where women’s identities are hidden behind the close doors of the household and violation against them is occurred. The violation of women’s body against its autonomy and freedom at the domestic level does not consider their personal concerns and demands where growing inequalities of wealth, property inheritance and unequal distribution of income makes women prone to domestic violence. Moreover, some cultural practices may lead to acts of VAW such as circumcision and early marriages and also, ideology factor plays an important role.
B. Human Development Framework
The HD Framework was developed by Al-Huq,[5] Martha C Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, where the Sen’s and Nussbaum’s Capabilities approach form its fundamental arguments. Sen sees capabilities as endowments which linked to the causes of poverty. He argues that by focusing on capability would give more information on the options and choices available to the person. While Nussbaum links the capabilities with the human rights and social justice related to the VAW. She introduces 10 basic human capabilities as “being able to” which are fundamental human entitlements or rights that should be adopted in the constitutions of all nations (Nussbaum 2005). It is a way of assessing substantive justice which goes beyond written legal documents. While Nussbaum is entrusted the state to do the task in securing such entitlements through constitution or legal-binding documents (a top down approach), Sen on the other hand is more focusing on the household-community relationship in the form of a collective action where rights should be the goal of a society (a bottom-up approach). However, these combination leads to the implementation of HD framework which focuses on democratizing public spaces, cultural and juridical reforms to emphasize human creativity, participation, accountability or to put it simply, a humanistic planning.
C. VAW within the Human Development Framework
In relation to VAW, Nussbaum argues that VAW undermines the interconnected 10 capabilities (Nussbaum 2005) which summarized as follows:
1. Life
Women lose their lives through VAW including at the hands of spouses or partners:
2. Bodily health and integrity
Violence have a tremendous impact on health even when they are not lethal, i.e rape has a major impacts to woman’s physical and emotional health.
3. Bodily integrity
Bodily integrity includes ‘‘being able to move freely from place to place’’ and requires ‘‘having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction’’. Sexual violence annul this capability.
4. Senses, imagination, thought
VAW and the fear of it cripple imagination, thought, and the enjoyment of the senses, as well as hindering access to education, to the freedom of speech, and to artistic creation. The threat of bodily violence is a way in which women have for centuries been silenced, prevented from using their thought and imagination to stake out a place in the world.
5. Emotions
VAW hinders women’s emotional development by fear and anxiety. Instead of anger and rebellion, women feel guilt and fatalism.
6. Practical reason
VAW creates fears of violence and thus, women could not form a conception of the good and engaging in critical reflection about the planning of her life.
7. Affiliation
The threat of violence limits women’s capability to form affiliations. In the family, actual violence deforms marital love and/or the relationship of female children to their parents and their surrounding world. In larger societies, it limits their social and political participation.
8. Other species and Play
By affecting mobility and independence, VAW affects women’s ability to have a meaningful relationship to the world of nature and to woman’s ability to enjoy leisure, laughter and play.
9. Control over one
It influences woman’s ability to participate in politics, employment and to control both land and movable property.
Nussbaum defines three types of capabilities which can be seen as the basic capabilities, the internal capabilities and combined capabilities (internal capabilities and external environment).[6] Public policy should promote internal capabilities, and make available the external institutional and material conditions.
[1] The new political package acts consist of Political Parties Act (Law No. Year ), The Structure and Organization of (National and Local) Parliament Act (Law No. Year ) and General Election Act (Law No. Year)
[2] The Indonesian National Commission on Women Annual Report 2004.
[3] The term “forced by situation” perpetrator refers to those women who commit a crime caused by frustration of having abused by her spouse for a long time.
[4] The neo-liberal reforms which gives priorities to trade has impacts on the poor and vulnerable women, children, minority groups, resilience of society. It measures the progress of development based on the economy fares as reflected in Gross National Products (GNP), while on the other hand, the HD Development measures the quality of life as how well people are doing as reflected in their Human Development Index (HDI).
[5] Four pillars from Huq are equity as equality of opportunities, productivity, sustainability, empowerment. He died in 1990s during his works for UNDP.
[6] Basic capabilities includes innate qualities necessary for more advanced capability (practical reason and imagination). Internal capabilities are built on pre-existing capabilities through training, education (socialization and structured educational environment).
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