(8/5/2023) | Higher education institutions as higher education institutions should facilitate training on gender awareness and prevention of sexual violence for their academic community. Tertiary education administrators must follow the protocol on the basic principles of preventing sexual violence following the recommendations of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemdikbud).
These basic principles include providing educational facilities and infrastructure, including safe campus infrastructure or layout; providing a secure complaint or reporting mechanism; socialized sexual violence reporting services or channels to all academics; as well as providing a warning sign “free area from sexual violence” on campus as an effort to internalize the values of anti-sexual violence. In addition to accommodating basic principles, tertiary institutions are also required to conduct training on gender awareness and prevention of sexual violence.
Airlangga University (UNAIR) is a university that pays special attention to issues of gender awareness and prevention of sexual violence. The existence of the Center for Gender and Social Inclusion Studies evidences this. Center for Gender Studies and Social Inclusion (PSGIS) UNAIR also held “Training on Gender Awareness and Prevention of Sexual Violence in University Campuses” on Tuesday (2/5/2023). The training, which was held for two days, invited gender experts from various fields as speakers.
One of the speakers at the training was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law UNAIR, Dr. Lanny Ramli, S.H., M.Hum. Lanny presented material on “The Roles of University to Prevent Sexual Violence.”
“The rise of cases of sexual harassment in universities has damaged the image of universities as a very decent place. Victims of sexual harassment vary, but the majority are students. In dealing with this problem, the Ministry of Education and Culture has issued Ministerial Regulation Number 30 of 2021 concerning the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence (Permendikbud PPKS), which took effect on September 3, 2021. This regulation is a measure to prevent sexual violence in tertiary institutions with protective values, a gender-based approach, and the benefits/advantages for the victim,” said Lanny.
Lanny also conveyed the critical points of the PPKS Permendikbud. One of the essential points is that universities must form a Task Force (Satgas) to prevent sexual violence in terms of strengthening governance. The PPKS Task Force consists of students, lecturers, and university staff, with a minimum of five people, and at least two-thirds of its members are women.
“Article 34 paragraph (1) of the PPKS Minister of Education and Culture explains that the Task Force is responsible for assisting tertiary education leaders in compiling Guidelines for the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence in tertiary institutions; conduct a sexual violence survey at least once in six months in tertiary institutions; disseminate education on gender equality, disability equality, sexual and reproductive health; and so on that has been explained in the article,” explained the lecturer in labor law at the Faculty of Law UNAIR.
In closing, Lanny emphasized that sexual violence must be prevented by existing regulations, especially at every university. The PPKS Permendikbud, in this case, has a step-by-step plan for preventing and handling sexual violence in universities. The contribution of the PPKS Task Force is very effective in helping to provide a ‘safe zone’ for academics to prevent sexual violence activities.
