May 9, 2005 - (Bernama) Indonesia, one of the "source" countries for trafficking in women, hopes the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member countries will support national plans and multi-sectoral strategies to fight human trafficking.

"We want NAM to share this concern and work hand-in-hand to curb this," Indonesia's Minister for Women's Empowerment Dr Meutia Hatta Swasono told Bernama at the NAM Ministerial Meeting on the Advancement of Women, here Monday.

She also called for NAM members to initiate gender mainstreaming projects to strengthen national machinery and institutionalize gender equity from national to regional level.

Like the Southern African Development Community, Indonesia had set a quota of 30 per cent for women in the legislature based on general election legislation passed in 2003.

The minister says NAM member countries should adopt a similar target.

"Women have different problems and if there are not enough women in the legislature, they can't solve these problems," she said.

Indonesia had not met this goal yet, with only 11.9 per cent at the national legislature and five out of 55 legislators in West Kalimantan province, for example.

But the government is working with non-governmental organisations to increase women representation in political parties, lobby leaders of these parties, improve the quality of women candidates and conduct campaigns about the target.

Commenting on one of the Ministerial Meetings sub-themes, Violence Against Women, the former medical anthropologist who specialised in mental health said Indonesia had a "Zero Tolerance Policy" on this.

Last year, it passed a law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence which provides for legal sanctions against perpetrators of physical, sexual, psychological, economic and social violence which include abandonment and neglect of the household.

Major city hospitals and police stations now have crisis centres and special treatment units for victims of violence. The republic's 1945 Constitution had also been amended to ensure women's rights, elimination of discrimination against women and gender equality while a 1999 law on Human Rights includes promotion and protection of women's rights, he said.

Meutia said Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, stressed that Islam came to the country in a peaceful way and did not put pressure on women but she said that it was still a patriarchal society.

"Because of that, women have to find good values in the Al-Quran to be their guidelines in daily life.

"For the empowerment of women, we have to let female ustazah (women religious teachers) to dig up this kind of values to be learned and adopted by the mothers who will teach the children," she added.

From: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=133514