Castrating Paedophilia -Not Against Their Rights

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     Indonesia has lately faced serious problems concerning the protection of children. International communities have been astonished by the many cases of children being sexually abused and raped by people with sexual disorders, known as paedophilia. The cases which have happened have been spreading in the small and remote villages in Indonesia. What must we do to save children from sexual violation? Examining the cases, the conclusion can be drawn that there is the same pattern that most of the perpetrators either used to be victims of sexual abuse when they were a child and they did not receive psychotherapy and are classified as untreated victims. Or they are clasified as social and emotional maladjusted persons. The perpetrators are closely known by the victims either their close family or their neighbour. The ages of the victims are vary from 5 to 16 years old. It is recorded that the number of the cases and victims are increasing, with 2.386 cases recorded in 2011; 2.637 cases a year later; and in 2013 there were 3.023 recorded cases. For the first four months of 2014, there have been 200 recorded cases excluding Emon’s victims in Sukabumi and the victims at JIS. It is documented by the Commission on Indonesian Children Protection (KPAI). Those numbers should alarm us that children are facing a dangerous situation. The purpose of this article is to demand that our children are better protected by the inclusion of a more comprehensive law that protects children and has harsher laws for the perpetrators of sexual crime against children. Although, Indonesia has the Law on Children Protection,  cases are rising. Since the law does not cover a comprehensive system for child protection and does not give additional punishment for serial paedophilia. The law should be amended to contain additional punishment and special protection programs for children. Further to this point, the law does not include clearly special treatment and protection for children who are the victims of sexual abuse. Although, article 59 of the law regulates special protection for children, the article does not provide a clear process what the government and community should do in cases of sexual abuse. In practice, the government and KPAI do not have programs for prevention. Since they do not know how to prevent, they act in response after they are informed by the media or the victim’s families. Advocation on children’s rights and the monitoring of criminal investigation of suspects are their only programs.

Noting the perpetrators often have mental, social and sexual disorders, imprisonment is should not be the only solution, as prevention, deterrent effects, sustaining community order and restoring the perpetrators to be law abiding citizens. The perpetrators should be charged with a subsidiary punishment which is chemical castration. This is proposed with the aim of reducing the libido and maintaining community order. More importantly, it is based on the idea of prevention, as after they are released from prison, they will not abuse other children. It is not against the rights of the perpetrators. As article 10 of the criminal proceeding law states the subsidiary punishment can be charged by revoking the convict’s right which is their reproductive right. Furthermore, the article 28J (2) of the Indonesian Constitutional Law, revoking rights are likely and should be specified in the legislation. Therefore, the law on children protection should be revised particularly article 81 (1). According to the article, acts of paedophilia will be charged with a maximum of 15 years and a minimum of 3 years imprisonment. The revised article will have the inclusion of the subsidiary sentence that is chemical castration administered by injection.

To reduce the level of child sexual abuse, we need to treat the victims of sexual violation by both physical and mental treatment. Physical treatment is giving medicine to prevent infection and cure injury; moreover, mental treatment is providing psychotherapy. The aim of psychotherapy is to eliminate, correct and diminish the sexual disorder. The intention of treatments is to prevent the spread of sexual disorder and to protect other children from becoming potential victims.

The castration of child rapists does not violate their reproductive rights since the rapists are classified as having emotional, social and psychosexual disorder, as they are likely to reoffend. To discontinue these offenses, special treatments and a revision of the law are needed in order to prevent children from becoming victims of sexual violence and exploitation.

Jakarta, 26 Mei 2014

Vera W. S. Soemarwi, S.H., LL.M

Teaching Assistance at Tarumanagara University, Law Faculty.