Tina Susilawati, Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has released its annual report in which it noted that there were 401,975 cases of violence against women throughout 2023.
"In general, data on violence against women from Komnas Perempuan, service institutions and religious court bodies (Badilag) experienced a decreased (of 55,920 cases or around 12 percent) compared with 2022, namely 401,975 [cases down] from 457,895", said Komnas Perempuan Chairperson Andy Yentriyani at the Danareksa building in Jakarta on Thursday March 7.
Yentriyani also said that there was a decrease in the number of reported cases compared with 2022. In 2022, Komnas Perempuan received 399,000 complaints while in 2023 there were 289,000 complaints.
Komnas Perempuan noted however that there was a slight increase in the number of complaints of cases of violence against women reported to Komnas Perempuan throughout 2023. The total number of complaints reached 4,374 cases, an increase of 3 cases compared to the previous year of 4,371 cases.
Broken down, Komnas Perempuan recorded 3,303 cases of gender-based violence in 2023, service institutions reported 6,305 cases and religious court bodies recorded a far higher amount, namely 279,503 cases.
Violence in the personal domain dominated the reports received by Komnas Perempuan. In the report, violence is classified in three categories, namely personal, public, and state.
Based on the data, it can be seen that case of violence in the personal domain reported to Komnas Perempuan in 2023 totalled 1,944 cases, a declined compared with 2022 when it reached 2,098 cases.
Meanwhile, cases of violence in the public and state domains increased sharply. In the public sphere, the number of cases increased by 44 percent to 4,182 cases and in the state domain they increased by 176 percent to 188 cases.
"We can see the same thing in the increase in the number of reports in the state domain. If in the previous year there were no cases in the state domain reported through data service institutions, this year the increase was extraordinary", said Yentriyani.
Based on the form of violence, complaints with service institutions were dominated by sexual violence with 2,363 cases or 34.80 percent, followed by psychological violence with 1,930 cases or 28.50 percent, physical violence with 1,840 cases or 27.20 percent and economic violence with 640 cases or 9.50 percent.
Meanwhile, Komnas Perempuan's data shows that psychological violence dominated with as many as 3,498 cases or 41.55 percent, followed by physical violence with 2,081 cases or 24.71 percent, sexual violence with 2,078 cases or 24.69 percent and economic violence of with 762 cases or 9.05 percent.
Yentriyani also mentioned that there are certain patterns that identify a need for an acceleration of response infrastructure to anticipate the development of cases of violence against women that are increasingly complex.
"After recognising the earlier patterns, we then identified that there is an urgent need to accelerate response infrastructure to anticipate the development of cases of violence against women that are increasingly complex", she said.
"The responses that we mean is a spectrum based on prevention, protection, enforcement, and also recovery for victims, including rehabilitation for perpetrators so that similar incidents are not repeated", she concluded.
Komnas Perempuan's annual reports are launched every year to mark International Women's Day (IWD) which is commemorated on March 8. Annual reports have been produced since 2001. (idn/idn)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Komnas Perempuan Catat 401.975 Kasus Kekerasan Sepanjang 2023".]
