English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
manner; (d) more than once; (e) constituting a case of dangerous recidivism; (f) against more
than one person; or (g) causing other serious consequences. The imposable penalty is
increased to seven to fifteen years imprisonment if committed against a child aged 13 to 16
years of age or if causing ‘very serious consequences’. 326 If the offense causes ‘particularly
serious consequences’, then the penalty is between 12 and 20 years of imprisonment.
Sexual intercourse with juveniles
Article 256 of the Penal Code states that those who have paid for ‘sexual intercourse with juveniles’
aged between 16 and 18 years will be sentenced to between one and five years of
imprisonment. It states that, if committed under any of the following circumstances, the imposable
penalty is increased to three to eight years imprisonment: (a) committing the offense more
than once; (b) having paid sexual intercourse with children aged between 13 and 16 years; (c)
causing harm to the victim’s health with an infirmity rate of between 31% and 60%. Article 256
also states that the imposable penalty is raised to between 7 and 15 years if: (a) the offense
is committed more than once against children aged between 13 and 16; (b) committed when
the offender knows s/he has been infected by HIV; and (c) harms the health of the victim with
an infirmity rate of 61% or higher.
Article 7 of the Law on Children prohibits “any act of seduction, deceit, trickery, harbouring
or force or that leads children into prostitution.”
The most focused legal document on prostitution is the Ordinance on Prostitution
Prevention and Combat (as per state president Order No. 10/2003/L-CTN of March 31, 2003)
(Ordinance on Prostitution). Article 4 of the Ordinance on Prostitution enumerates prohibited
acts relating to prostitution as follows: (a) buying sex; (b) selling sex; (c) harboring prostitution;
(d) organizing prostitution activities; (e) forcing prostitution; (f) brokering prostitution; (g) protecting
prostitution; (h) abusing the service business for prostitution activities; and (i) other acts
related to prostitution activities as prescribed by law. Article 3 of the Ordinance on Prostitution
defines the terms it uses as follows:
160
‘prostitution’ means acts of selling and buying sex;
‘buying sex’ means a person paying money or other material benefits to a prostitute
for having sexual intercourse with such person;
‘selling sex’ means a person having sexual intercourse with another for pay with money
or other material benefits;
‘prostitution harboring’ means any acts of using, renting, leasing, borrowing or
lending venues and/or means for buying and selling sex;
‘organization of prostitution activities’ means acts of making arrangements for buying
and selling sex;
‘prostitution coercion’ means acts of using violence or threatening to use violence or
using tricks to force other persons to sell sex;
‘prostitution protection’ means acts of abusing one’s position, powers, prestige or using
violence or threatening to use violence to protect and maintain prostitution activities.
326
Ibid., Article 255(3)
Review of key legal documents and compliance with CEDAW