Femicide on rise in Indonesia amid legal, enforcement gaps
Advocacy group Jakarta Feminist reported at least 204 cases in 2024, up around 11 perCcent from 184 in 2023. In a report released on Monday, the group noted that the victims also include underage girls and trans women.
Nearly half of the perpetrators, predominantly men, had intimate or familial ties to the victims, while over half of the killings took place in the victims' homes.
'Femicide has distinct characteristics compared to general homicide, requiring broader contextual examination,' said Jakarta Feminist's Syifana Ayu Maulida at the report's launch in Jakarta.
'These murders are often preceded by other forms of violence that are overlooked. Victims may be subjected to repeated abuse beforehand, abandoned at the crime scene, or raped before or after the killing,' she continued.
Most victims and perpetrators were between 26 and 40 years old, highlighting what the report describes as 'a close relationship and clear gender imbalance.' West Java, Central Java and East Java reported the highest number of cases.
The findings, based on media reports and grassroots data, also underscored persistent underreporting, as many femicide cases are misclassified as regular crimes. The group subsequently called for legal recognition of femicide to close this gap.
Siti Aminah Tardi, a researcher at the Indonesian Legal Resource Center (ILRC) and former member of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), explained that homicide qualifies as femicide when the motive is rooted in gender.
'One common indicator is when the perpetrator uses far more force than necessary to kill, which reflects a motive of severe hatred toward women,' she said on Monday (June 30). However, in the absence of a specific law, proving such motives in court remains difficult. 'Criminal charges require legal evidence, but femicide motives are especially hard to establish'.
Siti warned that the inability to recognise violence as gender-driven often allows routine criminal disputes to escalate into fatal attacks. 'Even so, femicide is not beyond legal reach,' she added.
Erni Mustikasari, spokesperson for the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Ministry, acknowledged the legal gap. While a dedicated femicide law could take years, most killings are currently prosecuted under general homicide statutes, which do not address the gendered nature of the crime.
Existing laws offer partial protection. The Domestic Violence Eradication Law criminalises physical, psychological and sexual abuse, but not murder.
The Sexual Violence Eradication Law recognises torture that may result in death, but not murder itself. The Child Protection Law similarly lacks provisions for the killings of girls
The new Criminal Code, set to take effect next year, introduces harsher penalties for murders within families, which Erni sees as an improvement, but still limited.
'This can be applied to femicide within families,' she noted. 'But it does not apply to women or cover relationships outside familial ties.'
Adj. Sr. Come. Endang Sri Lestari, head of the Youth, Women and Children Sub-directorate at the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim), acknowledged that investigators often fail to recognise the gendered context of violent crimes.
'Investigators' analysis does not go that far,' she said. 'With limited knowledge, they are unable to examine the gender-related psychological and social background in detail.'
Bareskrim is currently drafting an internal regulation aimed at embedding a gender perspective in policing. Though still in early development, the regulation seeks to reduce victim-blaming and promote more sensitive law enforcement responses to violence against women. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
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