On May 29-30, 2024, IJRS, together with the Bureau of Planning and General Crime of the Indonesian Attorney General’s Office, conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) in 6 District Attorney regions: Cianjur, Sukabumi, Surabaya, Bangkalan, West Lombok, and Central Lombok. This activity was carried out to gather data related to the implementation of Attorney General’s Guideline No. 1 of 2021 on Access to Justice for Women and Children in Criminal Case Handling.
The FGD aimed to understand practical experiences, barriers, challenges, and best practices of prosecutors in ensuring recovery rights and inclusive legal processes for women and children.
Additionally, on May 31, 2024, the activities continued with in-depth interviews with judges from District Courts and Religious Courts in the same 6 regions: Cianjur, Sukabumi, Surabaya, Bangkalan, West Lombok, and Central Lombok.
These interviews also aimed to explore judges’ experiences in implementing Supreme Court Regulation No. 3 of 2017 on Guidelines for Adjudicating Cases of Women Facing Legal Issues and Supreme Court Regulation No. 5 of 2019 on Guidelines for Adjudicating Marriage Dispensation Requests, including barriers, challenges, and best practices.
During these activities, Community Paralegals from the Women’s Union (Serikat Pekka) were involved in conducting FGDs with prosecutors and interviews with judges, who had previously received monitoring and evaluation training. This initiative aimed to empower Community Paralegals to have the capability to monitor and evaluate policies concerning women and children facing legal issues.
The hope is that the implementation of this monitoring and evaluation will yield results that provide input for changes to the internal regulations of law enforcement agencies regarding the handling of cases involving women and children facing legal issues, making them more aligned with the realities on the ground.
