VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Deputy of Social Sciences and Humanities at Indonesian Institute of Sciences -LIPI, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti does hope that Kartini Day which is commemorated every 21st of April becomes an encouragement for Indonesian women. She perceives that Indonesian women with various capabilities can become the agent of change of Indonesian nation.

“The philosophy of Kartini's role is basically the one in which the women exist with their condition. What does it mean? If women exist by their own power, they have equality. This means that nowadays, women must have equal rights and obligations in all sectors of life. They can become not only lecturers, teachers or academicians, managers, but also politicians in the political arena so that they have equal rights.” said Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti to RRI World Service -Voice of Indonesia on the sidelines of the Public Discussion on Kartini Day in Jakarta on Friday (20/4).

Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti further stated that in the present era with full complexity, Indonesian women should be able to show courage in all sectors and show their major role in contributing to build Indonesia. She also remarked that Indonesian women must also be able to actualize themselves with positive and useful things. (VOI/AF/RHM)

Indonesia has encouraged an increasing role of women in the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces. The role of women in the peacekeeping forces is considered very important to mainly reduce the adverse impacts on women in conflict areas.

“Basically, in conflict area, women are the most vulnerable object. So, by having female peacekeepers, hopefully we can mitigate, and reduce the risk for women, such as sexual harassment. Maybe, we can also learn from other countries, not only among MIKTA. It is interesting to know that Sweden sent 40 percent of its female peacekeepers. Meanwhile, Indonesia has 2.700 women peacekeepers,” said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, A.M Fachir in the opening speech of MIKTA Panel Discussion on Women and Peacekeeping in Jakarta more recently (April 19, 2018).

A. M Fachir further said that now, Indonesia is a country ranked in the top ten contributors to the UN peacekeeping forces, with 2,700 personnel scattering in conflict areas. Since 1957, Indonesia has contributed through the dispatch of approximately 40,000 personnel to maintain peace in some countries in the world. In the future, Indonesia will keep improving its contribution by sending one military battalion and hundreds of police personnel; 40 of whom are women. (VOI/Rezha/RHM)

The protection issue of migrant workers in Southeast Asia is one of the issues to be highlighted by Indonesia in the 32nd ASEAN Summit to take place in Singapore on 27-28 of April. At the meeting of the plenary sessions and the retreat, Indonesia to be represented by President Joko Widodo and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi will discuss again the strengthening of cooperation of Indonesian migrant worker protection among ten ASEAN member countries.

“Of course, other things that will be encouraged and concerned by us are about the strengthening of cooperation of migrant workers protection through the implementation of ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion on the Rights of Migrant Workers. As we know, the consensus has been signed by the ASEAN head of state in November 2017 in the Philippines.” said Chandra W.Yudha,Director of ASEAN Political andSecurity Cooperation of theIndonesia Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta on Friday (April 20^th).

Furthermore, Chandra explained that the 32nd ASEAN Summit is an appropriate forum to discuss various regional issues in Southeast Asia and how to move forward, including the protection issue of migrant workers. So far, the protection of migrant workers in Southeast Asia has been mutually agreed upon by the ten ASEAN member countries through the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. The agreements administer a number of rights owned by every migrant worker, ranging from the rights to hold a passport, rights to treatment and fair income in the workplace, the rights to communicate, the rights to participate in associations or unions in the recipient country, and the rights to file a case in case of breach of employment contract. In addition, the ASEAN Consensus also regulates the rights of families of migrant workers, including the rights to visit migrant workers working in one of the ASEAN countries. (VOI/Rezha/RHM)

President Joko Widodo and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi are scheduled to attend the 32nd ASEAN Summit in Singapore. A series of meetings of the ASEAN Summit will last for four days.

“We would like to convey the plan of the activities of Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs and also the President who are scheduled to attend the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and the ASEAN Summit in Singapore. ASEAN Ministerial Meeting itself will be held on 26-27 April and afterwards, it will be continued with ASEAN Summit on 27-28 April,” said Spokesman of Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Arrmanatha Nasir in a press conference held in Jakarta on Friday (April 20^th).

Arrmanatha Nasir added that Singapore as the host of the 32nd ASEAN Summit and ASEAN leaders in 2018 will specifically raise the theme "Building Resilient and Innovative ASEAN". There are some things that will be of interest to Indonesia at the 32nd ASEAN Summit, such as cyber security cooperation and government efforts to push the framework of ASEAN to advance ASEAN Smart City Network. Then, the 32nd ASEAN Summit is also expected to produce some key documents, such as ASEAN Leaders Vision for Resilient and Innovative ASEAN, and ASEAN Leaders Statement on Cyber Security Cooperation. (VOI/Rezha/RHM)