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collection and analysis, and to local governments in interpreting and enacting such guidelines. Furthermore, they could provide targeted assistance in particular districts for establishing or
strengthening local level KCCs.
5.6 RECOMMENDATION 6: ESTABLISHING A COMPREHENSIVE
NATIONAL CHILD SPECIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM TO UPHOLD AND MONITOR CHILD RIGHTS AND WELFARE AS MANDATED BY
THE INDONESIAN LAW ON CHILD PROTECTION
Recommended for: National and local level GoI, with the support of UNICEF and other donors
Since signing of the CRC in 1990, Indonesia has acknowledged that all children are subject to their evolving capacities, and are therefore in need of special safeguards and care, and are
entitled to certain fundamental rights. By ratifying the CRC through a Presidential Decree
4
and by ratifying the ILCP, which upholds many of the principles of the CRC, Indonesia has made a
legally binding commitment to respect, promote and fulfil children’s social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights. This requires the creation of an environment where all girls and boys are
free from violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect, inappropriate judicial responses and unnecessary separation from their families.
While this SITAN has demonstrated that in general the situation for Indonesian children has considerably improved, particularly related to access to health and education, yet tangible gains
for child protection are not keeping pace with progress in other areas.
The findings from Section 3, based on the limited data available on child special protection and data from the study on adolescents conducted by the University of Indonesia, highlight
that children continue to face grave protection violations, such as sexual exploitation and abuse, neglect, detention as a first response, the worst forms of child labour, trafficking,
corporal punishment, unnecessary institutionalisation, and violence in their homes, schools and communities. Such violations have persisted over time, despite ongoing efforts. The case study
of children living on the streets in Central Java also indicates that despite the improvements and interventions, the mistreatment of children in public institutions often based on insufficient
knowledge of child rights and alternative non-violent methods of punishment or incarceration continues to take place and may exist in other regions not covered in this study. Furthermore,
information from Save the Children indicates that there is an absence of an accreditation system and monitoring of the treatment of children in alternative care institutions. There may also be
synergies between treatment in the home, at school, and in the larger community, creating multiple-vulnerabilities for children, which may affect educational attainment, health and
nutritional status, and longer-term development through adolescence and into adulthood. In addition, while the ILCP defines children as including babies in the womb through adolescents
until they reach the age of 18 years, there are some contradictions in terms between this law and the marriage, citizenship and labour laws, in which the age range for childhood varies.
4 Although Recommendation 1 in this SITAN argues that it should also be ratified by the national parliament
Global analysis, clear evidence and systematic practices in many developed countries demonstrate that it is indeed possible to establish effective strategies to address child special protection
violations. Many child special protection systems in other countries have proven to be more cost effective and of greater benefit to the diverse range of child special protection concerns, in
contrast to development approaches that have focused on individual problems or specific child special protection issues. Thus, the global evolving strategic approach to child special protection
concentrates on developing comprehensive national child special protection systems. An effective national child special protection system would strengthen the protective environment
to safeguard children against all forms of abuse, exploitation, neglect and violence, and should consist of three interlocking components:
1. A holistic social welfare system for children and families 2. The justice system
3. An integrated social behaviour change component
Such systems and components should be structured in a way that both prevents and responds to all child special protection concerns in an integrated manner. Thus, the national child special
protection system should prevent violations from happening and protect children in all situations regardless of the nature of the violation or the context in which it occurs, including in emergencies,
conflicts, and in periods of transition. The work of the national child special protection system should include the promotion of attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours that support children’s
well-being and protection, and affirm children’s human rights, as set forth in the ILCP, the CRC and its Optional Protocols, and other international instruments.
In order to promote a comprehensive systematic approach to child special protection, consideration of the following is encouraged, in addition to harmonising the legal and policy
framework see Recommendation 1, and mainstreaming the understanding and implementation of laws, policies and procedures relating to child rights see Recommendation 2.
5.6.1 SERVICE DELIVERY
Social welfare and justice systems, structures and services are the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ of the national child special protection system. These structures refer to the organisation of institutions,
including the different ministries, departments and agencies, as well as their mandates, lines of accountability, responsibilities, capacities human, financial and infrastructure, and services
provided, including for children, and the supporting, monitoring and coordinating bodies. Social welfare and justice structures support different strategies, including prevention of, response to and
mitigation of child special protection violations.
Social welfare systems for children and families should be mandated in law to ensure that child rights to protection are fulfilled by those who have a role in their direct care, welfare, and
protection and by those with a role in ensuring guidance and justice for children. Actors in the social welfare systems are accorded the authority and responsibility to undertake actions to
prevent, respond to and mitigate the impact of any significant harm occurring to children, whether by their parents or relatives, other children, individuals, groups of individuals, or by officers of the
state itself, such as teachers, police officers, and government institutional care providers. Social welfare systems within a national child special protection system should prevent and respond to
such violations, in all situations regardless of the nature of the violation, or the context in which it occurs, including in emergencies, conflicts and periods of transition.
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The social welfare system should provide a continuum of services from prevention to response through comprehensive primary, secondary and tertiary services. Studies have demonstrated
that Indonesia has made good progress in developing tertiary services for children who have experienced various violations of child special protection, while secondary services are
inadequate. Critical to child special protection in Indonesia is the continued development of the resilience of the family, through social work functions with vulnerable families and the strategic
use of social cash transfers to decrease a family’s vulnerability to various shocks. This situation analysis is recommending a particular focus on the role of the Ministry of Social
Affairs, which is responsible for many aspects of social welfare, and the local Offices of Social Affairs, as well as the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection and local level
Bureaus, which are also responsible for monitoring and coordinating many aspects of child special protection policymaking. It also recommends a focus on the role of a professional and
well-trained cadre of social workers. As such, the policy recommendations include:
• Set up comprehensive secondary services to ensure early identiication and preventive services to children and families at risk.
• Develop a strategic vision and a long-term costed action plan to deine the role of social workers in a broader, comprehensive child special protection system at national and sub-
national levels, capable of providing a continuum of services from prevention to response. This plan should prioritize the following:
o Ensure a cadre of professional holistic social workers, with numbers meeting an internationally accepted population ratio the paid employment of para- professional
social workers can be explored as a cost effective means to reach larger populations. o Ensure that recent graduates are well equipped with effective social work skills that
promote family care and build family resilience to withstand various shocks through working with social work training colleges Ministry of Social Affairs and with state and
private universities.
o Develop appropriate in-service training agendas to upgrade the skills of existing social workers.
o Review existing social welfare legislation and policies to ensure a solid legal framework of support for the emerging strategic role of social workers.
o Work with the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection and similar local level Bureaus in coordinating other cross-cutting initiatives and referrals of children
to local Offices of Social Affairs and relevant service providers, as well as monitoring systems.
• Continue to undertake reforms related to justice for children to ensure adequate complementary efforts supportive of the social welfare role in preventing and responding to
child special protection violations with appropriate coordination and linkages.
5.6.2 PREVENTIONBEHAVIOUR CHANGE
Changing negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that violate child rights is a central concern in the process of building a national child special protection system. Social, cultural and behaviour
change is an inherent part of life, whereby knowledge, values and practices are continuously shifting, and have a direct impact on individuals, communities, organisations, institutions and
society. The behaviour of individuals, groups and institutions is largely based on the views, attitudes, demands and practices that promote and permit, sanction and constrain what is
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Therefore, where the legal framework and policies change, and social welfare and justice systems act to prevent, respond to and mitigate the impact
of child special protection violations or deficits, a critical feature of a national child special protection systems approach must be to affect behavioural, institutional and societal change to
promote and ensure child rights to protection, care, welfare and justice.
Strategies and approaches by social welfare systems would involve reinforcing those behaviours and actions that are in the best interests of children, as well as changing those behaviours and
corresponding actions that people believe will benefit children, but which are actually damaging to both children and society, such as corporal punishment and the placement of children in
inappropriate forms of care.
Poverty is often viewed as an underlying cause of violence against, and exploitation and abuse of children. While recognizing that violence, exploitation and abuse know no economic boundaries
and that child special protection applies to children across all economic strata, nevertheless, reducing some of the unique vulnerabilities caused by poverty will reduce violence, exploitation
and abuse for a large number of children. Therefore a critical cornerstone of child special protection includes building the resilience of families to cope with various shocks and stress.
This would include case management as appropriate, good parenting skills, alternatives to physical discipline methods and access to social cash transfers, amongst other interventions. The
following efforts are recommended:
• Develop comprehensive prevention campaigns using proven techniques to change behaviour at community and household levels, as well as a national level campaign with creative use of
the mass media. • Build resilience of vulnerable families to cope with stress and shocks through improved
parenting programmes and access to social cash transfers, among other interventions and initiatives.
• Examine the role of social cash transfers to reduce some of the poverty-related causes of child abuse, exploitation and violence in order to more effectively target such programmes.
• Ensure effective linkages among professional social workers, para-professional social workers and prevention campaigns and interventions.
• Improve the enforcement Indonesia’s various pieces of protective legislation. • Improve monitoring and cross-agency collaboration to ensure the sharing of information on
vulnerable children both individuals and groups.
5.7 RECOMMENDATION 7: PROMOTING EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT
FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN - TARGETING INTERVENTIONS ON WORST PERFORMERS TO IMPROVE POVERTY REDUCTION AND
PRO-POOR GROWTH, AND REACH THE MDGS WITH EQUITY
Recommended for: National and local level GoI, UNICEF and other stakeholders
It is clear from Sections 2 and 3 of this report, on the national and provincial indicators of economic growth, poverty levels, human development, health and nutrition, water and sanitation,
and child rights and welfare, that Indonesia has made extensive progress in improving the situation of households and individuals the past 10 years, and is on track to achieving some of
the MDGs. Such achievements are notable given the extraordinary political, economic and fiscal
