Legal Protection for Women with Disabilities as Victims of Sexual Violence: Comparative Lessons from Indonesia and Russia

Hartanto Hartanto, Said Munawar, Tri Purnomo Sidhi, Ildar R. Begishev

Abstract


Study Objectives: This study examines whether the legal frameworks of Indonesia and Russia provide effective, disability-responsive protection for women with disabilities who experience sexual violence.

Method/Approach: The research uses normative and comparative legal methods. It analyses international human rights instruments, Indonesian and Russian legislation, criminal procedure rules, and recent international scholarship through intersectionality, the human rights model of disability, and victim-oriented justice.

Novelty: The article moves beyond a descriptive inventory of rights. It develops a functional comparison of how two legal systems translate equality, reasonable accommodation, and victim participation into investigation, evidence, adjudication, and recovery. It also assesses Indonesia’s post-2025 criminal law reforms and Russia’s compensatory approach to participants with disabilities.

Findings: Both systems recognize equality and disability rights, but neither formal recognition nor general accessibility rules automatically remove procedural exclusion. Indonesia now has a stronger survivor-centred framework under the Sexual Violence Crime Law, its implementing regulation, and the new Criminal Procedure Code. Russia contributes a useful doctrinal emphasis on individualized compensatory measures, yet its framework also demonstrates the limits of relying on social-protection law without a comprehensive disability-specific procedural status. Effective protection requires early individual assessment, accessible reporting, qualified communication support, non-stereotypical credibility assessment, continuous legal and psychosocial assistance, and enforceable institutional accountability.

Conclusion: Legal protection becomes effective only when reasonable and procedural accommodation operates as an enforceable right at every stage of the criminal process, rather than as administrative discretion.


Keywords


Access to Justice; Disability; Human Rights; Sexual Violence; Women.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.21107/ri.v21i1.29936

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