Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights, Vol. 5 Issue. 2 December 2021 pp. 176 – 201 doi: 10.19184/jseahr. v5i2.28011 © University of Jember & Indonesian Consortium for Human Rights Lecturers Restorative Justice for Victim’s Rights on Sexual Violence: Tension in Law and Policy Reform in Indonesia Sri Wiyanti Eddyono Faculty of Law, University of Gajah Mada Email: sriwiyanti.eddyono@ugm.ac.id Abstract Indonesia has experienced very dynamic advocacy for legal reform on the protection of victims of sexual violence. Incidents of sexual violence have increased during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This paper considers three major ‘initiatives’ used to address sexual violence in Indonesia: first, the establishment of alternative policy mechanisms outside the traditional criminal justice system by law enforcement; second, the Criminal Code Bill and Government of Indonesia under the Ministry on Law and Human Rights; and third, the establishment of the anti-sexual violence bill for victim protection initiated by parliament and supported by women’s movements. All of these initiatives have claimed to incorporate principles of restorative justice within their approach which the impact of COVID-19 become one of the arguments. This paper analyzes whether the pursuit of restorative justice is an appropriate response for victims of sexual violence. The pursuit of restorative justice is one of many ambitious strategies to reform criminal justice mechanisms. This becomes increasingly problematic when the indicator of restorative justice is unclear. This paper finds that both the Criminal Code Bill and the Anti-Sexual Violence Bill have integrated some elements of restorative justice to criminal justice system, with the latter focusing more on the rights of the victims of sexual violence. Prior to the enactment of these Bill’s there some existing policies called for restorative justice for victims of sexual violence. Given the lack of clarity surrounding the meaning of restoring the rights of victims of sexual violence or how this could be measured, it was difficult to support victims or assess their restorative progress. This policy tends to neglect victims of sexual violence in favour of the offender’s interest. Without a formal definition and appropriate indicators to regulate it (i.e. with no clear aim), new policies seeking to protect victims of sexual violence and move toward restorative justice are unlikely to provide substantive support to those who need it most. Keywords: sexual violence, restorative justice, victim rights, criminal justice system, Indonesia legal reform. I. INTRODUCTION Sexual violence has become increasingly politically salient in Indonesia. The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), a specialized national human rights body and mechanism in Indonesia, reported that the number of sexual violence are relatively high. In 2018, 6,903 cases on sexual violence reported