Public Hearing by Community Post to Vice Regent and South Minahasa Parliament, North Sulawesi

Swara Parangpuan, one of the The National Commission on Anti-Violence against Women (KOMNAS Perempuan) partners, together with comunity posts conducted a public hearings to the South Minahasa Vice Regent and Parliament – Commission III, on 25 July 2016.

The hearing was attended by 19 members of the Women Victims of Violence Information Command Post in Pungkol Village and Arakan Village, Tatapaan District, South Minahasa Regency, South Sulawesi. The command posts, named MentariPost and Lestari Post, which are information center for victims of violence in the village, were formed in 2015. Their main focus is to provide guidance to women victims of violence, and they already partnered with village government in terms of addressing issues of women in the village.

During the hearing, they read and submited a position paper related to the their demands for the fulfillment of basic rights for the people. They also mentioned the problems occurred in the village and the obstacles encountered in assisting violence against women cases.

Vice Regent of South Minahasa, Franky D. Wongkar, responded the problems by providing direct answers to the Command Post members and clarifications to the relevant agencies in the Regional Government.

While during the hearing in Commission III of South Minahasa Parliament, the members: Toar Keintjem, S.Pi, Billy J Regar, S. Sos, Meyfy M Karuh, SH and Harianto Suratinoyo, responded by giving some suggestions to the Community Command Post to do more frequent communication. The parliament will allocates operating budget of Commission III for the Command Post activities. The Command Post also can access grants in 2016 by submitting a proposal to Parliament – Commission III.