By the age of 15, Ervan Wijaya was put in a Social Rehabilitation Centre in Jakarta by his mother who had grown concern about his sexual activity and heavy drug use. At the centre, his drug dependency lessened, but the intensity of other drives increased that were also threats to his health, he said.
“Most social rehabilitation centre programmes focus only on young people’s addiction to drugs, while ignoring their sexual needs. They have no access to comprehensive reproductive health information,” he said. “As a result, it is quite common for them finish their time at the centres clean from drug addiction, but on a different path of feeding that same need with unsafe sex, smoking and alcohol.”
Ervan, now an addiction counsellor at a rehabilitation centre, was sharing his perspective as a youth representative during the UNESCO-supported symposium, “Empowering Young People in Closed Settings from Reproductive Health Problems”, at the 5th AIDS National Meeting held in late October in Makassar, South Sulawesi province.
He underscored the plight of huge numbers of people living in “closed settings”, which can refer to any type of confinement, including prisons, though Ervan’s experiences and the focus of the symposium kept to the social rehabilitation centres where youth with substance abuse issues are likely to end up.
Field data shows that there is a strong possibility of increased risky behaviours in closed settings and that the lack of sexual health education means that a stay in a rehabilitation centre could result in problems just as harmful to a young person’s health as the drug use that brought them there.
More than 350 people attended the UNESCO-led session, testament, organizers said, to the strong concern health and rights activists have around the need to develop a strategic approach to raise attention among key stakeholders in Indonesia around this issue.
The Indonesian AIDS National Meeting, coordinated by National AIDS Commission, is a crucial forum, bringing together all key stakeholders, including representatives from government, civil society, the private sector, international organizations, donors and UN agencies. The UN Joint Team on HIV & AIDS has been committed to the meeting since its inception.
UNESCO, a UNJTA member, led the symposium which is in line with the organization’s current efforts to assist the government of Indonesia in development a comprehensive reproductive health module for young people in closed settings.
I Wayan Kadusak, head of the Directorate of Correction Centre, Ministry of Law and Human Rights and Budi Waskito, director of the Social Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Substance Abuse, Ministry of Social Affairs were among the panellists at the symposium. Both acknowledged that there has been little done to raise comprehensive reproductive health knowledge among young people in closed settings.
I Wayan Kadusak said that it wasn’t until 2013 that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights developed supplementary readings with UNESCO’s support on reproductive health issues for juvenile detention centre staff.
UNESCO is working with both ministries to develop comprehensive reproductive health modules for young people in closed settings.
Imam Prasodjo, panellist and senior sociologist from the University of Indonesia, pointed out how this could prove challenging for the ministries given that to date the Ministry of Health has had the mandate to protect young people’s health.
The ministries of law and human rights and social affairs have a long list of tasks and responsibilities, yet very limited budgets. This means that activities that fall outside their direct mandates are not given priority, making it difficult for them to find financing when the national budget is disbursed.
The symposium’s panellists agreed on the urgent need for stronger collaboration between the three ministries. The officials from the ministries of law and human rights and social affairs said that they are willing and have the human resources needed to conduct and integrate a reproductive health programme in closed settings. However, they said they would need the Ministry of Health to support such an initiative as well as to ensure the program receives financial support from the national budget.
Delegates also suggested that ties be strengthened between government and civil society organizations to ensure young people in closed settings have access to comprehensive reproductive health education and services.
Experts at the symposium also agreed on the need to strengthen policy. Currently there is no regulation in place differentiating treatment for children and adults nor is there an official rule segregating rehabilitation centres between children and adults or males and females.
Contact: UNESCO Jakarta office