IKALUIN Award 2026: Former National Commission on Violence Against Women Chair Urges Sharia Institutions to Lead Human Rights Reform

JAKARTA, UIN Online News – Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, a distinguished alumna of the Philosophy Department at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta and former Chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), continues to embody an unwavering commitment to defending gender equality and child protection.

Following her tenure at the state human rights institution, Chuzaifah has aggressively maintained her frontline activism, operating as an international human rights consultant and a regular analytical contributor to premier media outlets, including Kompas and The Jakarta Post. Backed by decades of rigorous field experience in defending vulnerable demographics, she remains a highly sought-after keynote speaker across global human rights platforms.

Interviewed by the UIN Online media team during the prestigious 2026 IKALUIN Award gala, Chuzaifah expressed severe concerns regarding the escalating complexities of gender inequality in Indonesia. Her extensive field investigations have exposed critical systemic crises affecting women across marginalized regions.

“Today, we are witnessing the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence, which is femicide and it deliberately targets on killing women. Concurrently, in remote rural districts, basic infrastructure deprivation, such as acute clean water scarcity, directly targets women’s health. I have personally documented cases of rural women arriving at local public health clinics (Puskesmas) suffering from severe physiological drought and waterborne parasitic infections on their skin due to this ecological crisis,” she stated grimly.

Deeply versed in Islamic feminism, constitutional law, public administration, and progressive Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), Chuzaifah delivered a sharp critique regarding state management, noting that the national system requires comprehensive structural reform.

“The structural distress experienced by the grassroots community is a direct symptom of state governance failures. We are facing a critical administrative intersection that demands a serious, systemic reform,” she asserted.

Furthermore, she argued that gender mainstreaming must transcend ornamental public relations or political tokenism. True gender advocacy serves as a vital safeguard protecting civil liberties for vocal women, students, and human rights defenders. She warned that the shrinking of democratic spaces for university students to voice dissent constitutes a direct violation of fundamental human rights.

As a prominent UIN Jakarta graduate, Chuzaifah highlighted that university students, religious intellectuals, and communal leaders possess a massive responsibility to spearhead a paradigm shift toward human-rights-based perspectives.

She specifically directed her focus toward Islamic centers of learning, asserting that religious institutions cannot operate as passive observers but must function as frontline responders to real-world socio-economic crises.

“We must confront institutional vulnerabilities directly. We see documented cases of violence occurring inside boarding schools and other religious academies. Furthermore, we must address how systemic injustices and climate change disproportionately exploit women. These critical variables demand immediate institutional responses,” she added.

Chuzaifah emphasized that UIN Jakarta holds a unique geopolitical and theological mandate to champion human rights, gender equality, and child welfare. She urged her alma mater to lead and direct civil society groups toward progressive, data-backed advocacy.

“UIN Jakarta occupies a strategic, paradigmatic position because it operates as an elite producer of knowledge, successfully generating progressive leaders who populate local communities and high-level state organs,” she affirmed.

The conferral of the 2026 IKALUIN Award to Yuniyanti Chuzaifah under the Gender Equality and Child Protection category delivers a profound institutional message to the public.

“This award is far from a symbolic or decorative accolade. It stands as a powerful public alarm, warning us that the commitment toward gender equality remains dangerously muted and demands a far more serious, consolidated mobilization,” she concluded.

Spanning over 30 years of continuous human rights activism, Chuzaifah’s extensive portfolio includes strategic leadership across prominent non-governmental organizations, including the Women's Movement, Solidaritas Perempuan, and Search for Common Ground, where she pioneered the Women’s Peace Network. Additionally, she has long guided the Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN). Leveraging her foundational academic network at UIN Jakarta, her global profile is further underscored by her extensive tenure as a senior gender advisor, supported directly by McGill University, Canada.