Komnas HAM has called for an end to discrimination and stigma against the LGBTI community, urging the government to issue more supportive regulations.
The former Chairperson and member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Hafid Abbas has called for an end to discrimination and stigma against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, urging the government to issue more supportive regulations.
“They have been marginalized, inflicted with violence, isolation. It cannot be justified. […] We can’t build this country with persistent stigmatization of and discrimination against the LGBT community,” Hafid told The Jakarta Post.
He said the government had a lot of work to do, including the establishment of an operational regulation on the treatment of LGBT people as citizens of the country.
“There should be a more technical procedure on the protection of the LGBT community because much of the violence they have suffered is inflicted by legal authorities,” Hafid said.
Currently, Indonesia has no specific law on the protection of the LGBT community except the 1945 Constitution.
Komnas HAM is also calling for a large-scale information program to highlight that the Indonesian community has a responsibility to protect the rights of the LGBT community and to provide recovery programs to heal physical and psychological wounds suffered from past abuse.
Forum LGBT Indonesia, a coalition of LGBT individuals, recorded 47 cases of abuse against gay individuals across the country in 2013.These included bullying, physical attacks, verbal abuse and murder, as well as exclusion in the workplace and criminalisation.
Some of the cases were perpetrated by state actors, such as police and public order personnel.
Original Source: Jakarta Post
Source – Asia Pacific Forum
