ownership of its provision,” and to achieve this
purpose, particular attention should be paid,
among other things, to the process by which a con-
stitution is made (Saunders 2002, 2). The process
should undoubtedly involve all constituents within
the community, including women. Sadly, looking at
the experience of various countries, women are
usually underrepresented in the process (ibid.). Yet
women play important supporting roles in practice,
as academics, researchers, or organizers.
Indonesia is no exception. Looking back to
Indonesian constitutional history, there were only 2
women out of 69 members of the Badan Penyelidik
Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia
(BPUPKI, Committee for examination of Indone-
sian independence), which was in charge of draft-
ing the 1945 constitution. They were Mrs. R. Siti
Soekaptinah Soenarjo Mangoenpuspito and Maria
Ulfah Santoso, who later became the Indonesia’s
first woman minister (State Secretariat 1998).
The 1945 constitution was amended four times
between 1999 and 2002 and women again played
a minimal role in the formal drafting of amend-
ments as they constitute only 9.2 percent of the
total members of the Majelis Permusywaratan
Rakyat (MPR, People’s consultative assembly),
which is in charge of amending the constitution (Ani
Soetjipto 2002, 15). However, outside the assem-
bly, women activists and women’s organizations,
for example, the Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia
untuk Keadilan dan Demokrasi (KPI, Indonesian
women’s coalition for justice and democracy) and
the Jaringan Perempuan dan Politik (JPP, Network
of women and politics), have made significant con-
tributions by conducting seminars, preparing the
drafts of amendments that deal specifically with
women and gender matters, and conducting lob-
bies. The movements resulted in, among other
things, the adoption of new provisions relating to
the protection of women’s rights in the amended
1945 constitution.Protection of women’s rights
in the 1945 constitution and
its amendments
Article 27, paragraph (1) of the 1945 consti-
tution states that “all citizens have equal status
before the law and in government, and shall abide
by the law and the government without any excep-
tion.” Although the words “men” and “women”
are not used it is commonly accepted that the con-
stitution upholds the principle of equality for men
and women. However, the KPI argues that the arti-
cle only recognizes the principle of equality before80 constitutions
the law, rather than equality of men and women
(KPI 2000, 15). Therefore, the KPI suggests the
inclusion of the principle of anti-discrimination on
the grounds of race, ethnic origin, sex, age, religion,
or political ideology (ibid., 15). Implementation of
the equality principle should be accompanied by
affirmative action (ibid., 16).
In 2000, in response to the public demand for ex-
tending the recognition of human rights provisions,
the People’s Assembly made the Second Amend-
ment to the 1945 constitution. Some important
provisions relevant to women’s rights are stipulated
in Articles 28H paragraph (2) and 28I paragraph
(2). The former states that “each person has the
right to assistance and special treatment in order to
gain the same opportunities and benefits in the
attainment of equality and justice” while the latter
states that “each person has the right to be free
from discriminatory treatment on any grounds and
has the right to obtain protection from such discrim-
inatory treatment.” It can be concluded that the
amended 1945 constitution provides the principles
of equality and paves the way for using affirmative
action policy in any field to enhance women’s rights.Legislation relevant to
women’s rights and gender
Prior to the Second Amendment of the 1945 con-
stitution by the People’s Assembly, the Dewan
Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR, House of representa-
tives) and the president enacted a new law on
human rights, Law Number 39 of 1999, in Part 9 of
which women’s rights are explicitly provided for.
Part 9 directs that the political and electoral system
as well as the appointment mechanism in the exec-
utive and judiciary arms of government should
guarantee women’s representation. It also guaran-
tees the right to determine citizenship, the right to
obtain special protection in the workplace concern-
ing any matter that might affect a woman’s repro-
ductive function, the right to legal action based on
her own conduct, and so forth.
It is recognized that some obstacles to women’s
participation in parliament still exist in Indonesia.
These include “political obstacles, socio-economic
obstacles and ideological and psychological hin-
drances” (Shvedova 1998). One possible way out is
to introduce a quota system. Unfortunately, the
amended 1945 constitution does not contain any
single article that deals with a quota for women in
the national parliament. Rather, it is covered by
Law Number 12 of 2003 on General Election. Arti-
cle 65 of this law states that “each participating
political party may nominate candidates for the DPR,