Alfian, Makassar – The Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH-APIK) recorded that there were 1984 cases of violence against women in 2016.

As of early 2017, the LBH-APIK along with other paralegals had handled 166 reports of violence in South Sulawesi. This number was dominated by cases of domestic violence (KDRT) followed by cases of sexual violence.

“This indicates that the Makassar government is not providing the maximum protection for either women or children”, said LBH-APIK director Rosmiati Sain.

LBH-APIK is continuing to campaign against the threat of violence and discrimination, particularly during the momentum of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2017.

LBH-APIK together with a number of other organisations from the South Sulawesi Women’s Coalition, the non-government organisation (NGO) Women and Children’s Concern, along with youth and students, held a peaceful action to commemorate IWD under the Jl. Urip Sumoharjo flyover on Wednesday March 8.

The protesters brought a number of banners and posters related to their demands which included, among others, calling on the Makassar municipal government to protect, provide for the needs of, and respect the rights of women.

In the legal sphere, they called on law enforcement officials to fairly and correctly uphold the law in handling cases of violence against women and children.

Finally, they called upon and invited all parties to cooperate to end all forms of discrimination and injustice against women and other venerable groups. (*)

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was “LBH APIK Tolak Diskiriminasi Terhadap Perempuan”.]

Source: http://makassar.tribunnews.com/2017/03/08/lbh-apik-tolak-diskiriminasi-terhadap-perempuan