Positive action to reclaim women rights on Sexuality and follow-up, projects of Semarak Cerlang Nusa, Indonesia

SCN’s organisational  goal is to contribute to the establishment of justice and social justice by implementing human rightswithin the society

1.  Positive action to reclaim women rights on sexuality, through:

Objectives & activities:

• Mapping sexuality issues and the sexuality ‘movement’ in Indonesia
• Workshop on Sexuality and Women Control to their Body and Sexuality -- for young women leaders and women activists.
• Competition and Discussion on Short Movie on Sexuality participated  by Teenagers (Senior High School Students) in Yogyakarta
• Documenting the process, materials used and method of capacity building to pull out the lessons learnt that can be spread to others groups at national and international levels.
• Base-line data on cases of the impact of polygamy to women, family and society

2. The mapping of civil society initiative on sexuality issue in Java and Sumatra and the Documentation of Men’s Initiative on Promoting Monogamy.

Objectives of project 2, which is a continuation of the previous project:

• The mapping of groups and institution that are working and addressing the issue of women’s rights on sexuality in various contexts in Indonesia, particularly in Sumatra region is broadened and increased.
• The materials for positive action on the awareness of sexuality and body integrity are  published and disseminated
• The capacity of women activist in analyzing and advocating women’s right to sexuality, particularly on advocating Indonesia’s Amendment of Marriage Law is increased (particularly on polygamy issue)
• The base line data men’s initiative on campaigning pro-monogamy is published and disseminated.

Various activities were undertaken successfully to achieve the 4 objectives:

• The Mapping of Civil Society Initiative on Women’ Sexuality Issue in Sumatra
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in Pesantren Krapyak DI Yogyakarta, 31 December 2011
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in ALIMAT Member (in cooperation with ALIMAT), 07 February 2011.
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in Berbah, 12 February 2011
• Discussion on “Men Support on Monogamy: How to Endorse More Man Saying No to Polygamy?” in Cooperation with PSKK UGM 14 January 2011.
• Discussion on “Men Support on Monogamy: How to Endorse More Man Saying No to Polygamy?” 14 January 2011
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in ALIMAT Member (in cooperation with ALIMAT), 09 February 2011
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in Pesantren Krapyak DI Yogyakarta
• Discussion and Film Screening of Men’ Initiative on Choosing Monogamy in Berbah
• Women  Discussion on “Men Support on Monogamy: How to Endorse More Man Saying No to Polygamy?” in Cooperation with PSKK UGM 14 January 2011

Main Strategies:

• Re-negotiating tradition through collecting the men’s initiative in promoting monogamy in marriage.
• Formulation of argumentation that can be used for the advocacy on the Amendment of Marriage Law in Indonesia
• Providing knowledge through the documentation on men’s initiative and mapping of the civil society on sexuality issue, to be used by activist/NGO workers or common people.  

Outcomes:

• The material on women’s body integrity is prepared and ready to be used by our networks, not only for legal advocacy but also raising peoples’ awareness. The enthusiasm of the participants to share the information with their network shows the potential long term impact of this project.
• Identification of the need for more capacity building for work on sexuality is also a sign of sustainability
• The achieved awareness and positive responses of people/organisations from different parts of the social movements is already visible, and forms the basis of sustainability of work on sexual rights.
• An informal network was formed,  including  individuals and groups from diverse sections of the society:  affected women, young women, students, families of affected women and students,  activists, intellectuals/academics, other NGOs, and made plans for follow-up activities
• The network that was built among the partners in Indonesia came up with an agreement to continue our partnership 

Below see film screening discussion notes, polygamy in Indonesia booklet, Choose Monogamy documentary, 5 short films made by high school students, and a documentary about polygamy.