National

Human Trafficking Draft Bill to be Presented at DPR
Thursday, 07 July, 2005 | 21:10 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Women’s Commission at the House of Representatives (DPR) will use its right of initiative to present the Human Trafficking Crime Eradication draft bill at the DPR plenary meeting.

According to DPR Women’s Commission chairperson Hanief Ismail, her commission wishes to speed up the discussion of this draft bill to get rid of government bureaucracy.

“It’s really urgent. There must be a legal basis for police and prosecutors,” Ismail told TEMPO.

Previously, Irma Alamsyah, Women’s Protection Deputy at the Minister of Women’s Empowerment, said that the draft bill was already at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in order to be handed over to the President.

However, Oka Mahendra, Director General for the state decree legislation at the ministry, said that the draft bill had to first be presented by the Minister of Empowerment to all related institutions in order to be evaluated and improved.

Ismail said that police and prosecutors have experienced difficulties in handling the human trafficking cases because of the lack of a clear legal basis.

The police can only use the Criminal Code, which provides for only very light punishments, about six years in prison.

“Meanwhile, human trafficking is one of the worst forms of human rights violation. In addition, it is a trans-national crime,” Ismail stated.

However, Muhammad AS Hikam, Head of the DPR Legislation Board, said that his board would not recommend this draft bill as a priority to be discussed by parliament.

“Just let the commission present the draft bill,” said Hikam two days ago.

However, he did say that the Human Trafficking Draft Bill would be included in the national legislation program this year.

Therefore, the Legislation Board, Hikam said, would hand over the proposal made by the commission to the DPR plenary session in order to receive approval for discussion at the DPR Consultative Board. (ISTIQOMATUL HAYATI-Tempo News Room)