+44 330 818 7254The study of sexual violence and its principle has been widely discussed. However, this study tends to focus more on different viewpoints regarding the Sexual Violence Eradication bill and examines why it took so long to be ratified. According to the current legal framework in Indonesia, protecting people from sexual violence solely includes the conviction of the perpetrators; no prevention efforts, handling, and the victim’s recovery. Thus, the victim’s rights were not fulfilled by existing law, whereas the Sexual Violence Eradication bill specifies more detailed provisions of sexual violence. However, the bill has its pros and cons, which come from a controversy between two contradictory opinions in understanding it. The pros tend to use a gender perspective and rely their support on the academic text of the bill. This gender perspective places significant attention on the experience of victims, especially women. The opposing party, meanwhile, tends to use a religious perspective, arguing that because the bill takes a gender perspective from the secular West, it invalidates Islamic traditions. Therefore, this research aims to explore the struggle to pass the bill. By conducting a qualitative content analysis, the researcher analyzed transcripts of press conferences, debates, academic papers, fact sheets, and key points, also meeting results from news sources and the parliament’s official websites related to the Sexual Violence Eradication bill. The findings of this research indicate that cultural, economic, and political factors are the main reasons the Sexual Violence Eradication bill was delayed for almost 10 years.
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