Human rights in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
are defined by
the 1945 Constitution (UUD 1945) and the laws under it; several rights are guaranteed especially as a result of the constitutional amendments following
the Reform era. The
Ministry of Law and Human Rights
The Ministry of Law and Human Rights is an Indonesian ministry that administers laws and human rights. It is responsible to the president, and is led by the Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, since 27 October 2014. The first mini ...
deals with human rights issues in the cabinet, and the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), established in Suharto's
New Order administration in 1993, is the country's
national human rights institution
A national human rights institution (NHRI) is an independent state-based institution with the responsibility to broadly protect and promote human rights in a given country. The growth of such bodies has been encouraged by the Office of the United ...
.
Actions by the government of Indonesia have been noted as concerning by advocates for
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
. Although the country has had Komnas HAM, which enjoys a degree of independence from government and holds United Nations accreditation, the commission itself has little effect as it was not given any legal teeth against discriminatory practices committed by the government.
Reports by
Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, and the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
highlighted the most common human rights issues in Indonesia, namely the situation in
Western New Guinea
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...
region, the treatment of religious, gender and sexual minorities,
sexual and reproductive rights
Sexual and reproductive health and rights or ''SRHR'' is the concept of human rights applied to sexuality and reproduction. It is a combination of four fields that in some contexts are more or less distinct from each other, but less so or not at ...
, the
rights of women
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
,
children,
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
, and
the disabled, and
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
and
association
Association may refer to:
*Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
*Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry
*Voluntary associatio ...
.
Legislation
In the original text of the 1945 Constitution (before amendments) there are various basic rights and obligations for citizens, but the term "human rights" itself is not mentioned in the text. According to Indonesian legal expert and current
Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD
Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin (born 13 May 1957), commonly known as Mahfud MD, is an Indonesian politician and lawyer, who is currently serving as the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs of Indonesia. He is the first civ ...
, human rights are different from citizen rights contained in the 1945 Constitution, because human rights are considered rights inherent in humans naturally, while citizen rights are particular rights acquired because of one's Indonesian citizenship. On the other hand, Soedjono Sumobroto said that human rights are actually implied in the 1945 Constitution through
Pancasila. In addition, in the preamble, content, and explanation of the current constitution, there are at least 15 principles of human rights.
Meanwhile, other legal experts like Kuntjoro Purbopranoto have observed that there are human rights guarantees in the 1945 Constitution but not included systematically. According to him, there are only four articles that contain human rights provisions, namely Articles 27, 28, 29 and 31. Legal expert Solly Lubis also believes that the formulation of rights in the constitution is indeed very simple and brief, but according to Majda El Muhtaj this is natural because the drafting of the 1945 Constitution was too short to catch up with the time so that the 1945 Constitution could become the foundation for the newly independent state of Indonesia. The constitution itself was originally in effect from 18 August 1945 to 27 December 1945, but its enactment was ineffective due to the
national revolution and socio-political conditions that were not conducive at the time.
After the
Round Table Conference
The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...
, the
1949 Constitution of the
United States of Indonesia
The United States of Indonesia ( nl, Verenigde Staten van Indonesië, id, Republik Indonesia Serikat, abbreviated as RIS), was a short-lived federal state to which the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies (exce ...
(RIS Constitution) came into effect. The constitution does not explicitly mention the word "human rights", however it clearly stipulates human rights in Part V entitled "Basic Human Rights and Freedoms". This section contains 27 articles, namely Articles 7 to 33. In addition, the 1949 RIS Constitution also sets out the basic obligations of the state related to human rights enforcement efforts in Section 6 ("Basic Principles"), itself consists of 8 articles. This emphasis on human rights is the influence of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...
adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
on 10 December 1948. The 1945 Constitution were returned into effect in 1959, and only underwent a number of amendments (including the human rights provisions) after the fall of the New Order.
Human rights provisions then further stipulated in Act Number 39 of 1999 on Human Rights (''Undang-Undang Nomor 39 Tahun 1999 tentang Hak Asasi Manusia'').
Use of force and impunity
The
Indonesian National Police (Polri) used unnecessary and excessive force against demonstrators and protesters, especially concerning land dispute cases. In the rare instances where investigations took place, little progress was made in bringing perpetrators to justice.
*In January, six
palm oil farmers were seriously injured in Jambi Province after Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers fired rubber bullets at them in an attempt to evict them from a plantation on which they were working. The plantation was the subject of an ongoing land dispute between the farmers and a palm oil company.
*In June, security forces used unnecessary and excessive force while attempting to evict forcibly a community in Langkat district,
North Sumatra. The community had been involved in a land dispute with the local authorities. When the community protested against the eviction, police officers fired on the crowd without warning, injuring at least nine people. Six others were kicked and beaten.
Amnesty International reports that over the last decade, significant steps have been taken to reform the Polri. The government has put in place legislative and structural reforms to strengthen their effectiveness in preventing and detecting crime, maintaining public order and promoting the rule of law. The police have also introduced internal regulations to ensure that international human rights standards are upheld during policing operations. Despite these positive moves, credible reports of human rights violations committed by the police continue to emerge, with the police routinely using unnecessary and excessive force and firearms to quell peaceful protests. Police have been implicated in beatings, shootings and killings of people during mass demonstrations, land disputes or even routine arrests.
Although the authorities have made some attempts to bring alleged perpetrators to justice using internal disciplinary mechanisms, criminal investigations into human rights violations by the police are all too rare, leaving many victims without access to justice and reparations. This situation is made worse by the lack of an independent, effective, and impartial complaints mechanism which can deal with public complaints about police misconduct, including criminal offences involving human rights violations. While existing bodies such as the Komnas HAM or the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) are able to receive and investigate complaints from the public, they are not empowered to refer these cases directly to the Public Prosecutor's Office or the police internal disciplinary body.
Repeated allegations of torture and otherwise ill-treating detainees by security forces, particularly peaceful political activists in areas with a history of independence movements such as Papua and
Maluku region, has been reported. Independent investigations into such allegations were rare. There were no investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of 21 peaceful political activists by Special Detachment-88 (Densus-88), a police counter-terrorism unit. The 21 had been tortured during arrest, detention and interrogation in Maluku in August 2010.
Caning was increasingly used as a form of judicial punishment in
Aceh. At least 72 people were caned for various offences, including drinking alcohol, being alone with someone of the opposite sex who was not a marriage partner or relative (khalwat), and for gambling. The Acehnese authorities passed a series of by-laws governing the implementation of
Sharia after the enactment of the province's Special Autonomy Law in 2001.
On 29 August 2020, Indonesian police forcibly raided on a private gathering of 56 men in
Jakarta, arresting nine men and charging them with the crime of "facilitating obscene acts", which discriminates against the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
community. The charges violated the right to privacy, association and equal protection of the law, and highlighted the threat to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.
Discrimination
Religious
Freedom of religion in Indonesia
The Indonesian constitution provides some degree of freedom of religion. The government generally respects religious freedom for the six officially recognized religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism) and/or f ...
only applies to adherents of six major religious groupings,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
,
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
,
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...
,
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Islam and
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
. Questioning any of those six religious groupings can lead to five years in prison for "insulting a major religion" and six more years in prison if the act occurs on the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Indonesia's Criminal Code
prohibits blasphemy.
In July 2005, the
MUI issued a fatwa that condemned the sect of
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
as heretical. In June 2008, the
Ministry of Religious Affairs and the
Ministry of Home Affairs
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
issued a Joint Ministerial Letter regarding the Ahmadiyya. The letter told authorities to restrict Ahmadiyya activities to private worship and to prevent Amadhi Muslims from proselytising. Provincial governors in West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and West Nusa Tenggara banned all Ahmadiyya activity.
At least 18 Christian churches had been attacked or forced to close down. In many cases, the police failed to protect religious and other minority groups adequately from such attacks.
*In February, three Ahmadis were killed after a 1,500-person mob attacked them in Cikeusik, Banten Province. On 28 July 12, people were sentenced to between three and six months' imprisonment for their involvement in the incident. No one was charged with murder, and local human rights groups raised concerns about the weak prosecution.
*The Mayor of Bogor continued to defy a 2010 Supreme Court ruling ordering the authorities to reopen the Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church. The congregation was forced to conduct its weekly services on the pavement outside the closed church, amid protests from radical groups.
In November 2018, the Indonesian government released a smartphone app called "Smart Pakem" which allows its users to file a report to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office anyone suspected of practising officially unrecognised faiths or of having unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions.
LGBT
LGBT people in the country regularly face challenges. Although
LGBT issues have been relatively obscure, the 2010s (especially after 2016) has seen a rapid surge of anti-LGBT rhetoric, putting LGBT Indonesians into a frequent subject of intimidation, discrimination, and even violence.
In January 2018, the Aceh police ransacked a parlour with support from the Aceh autonomous government. The police tortured all LGBT citizens within the premises of the parlour, shaved the heads of transgender women, stripped their shirts and bras, and paraded them in the street while forcing to shout 'to become men'. This event caused massive outrage from human rights organisation throughout the world, including liberal parts of Asia.
In February 2018, the government announced plans to pass legislation that would criminalise gay sex. The legislation is supported by eight of the ten political parties of the country and is expected to pass before Valentine's Day, though it was suspended after President Jokowi calls for the bill to be canceled after massive amounts of protests. As of 2021, homosexuality could not be prosecuted by the law, but Indonesia only recognises heterosexual marriage. In 2020, party members from
Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, an Islamic-based party, proposed a controversial bill called "Family Defense Act" that marginalize homosexuality and
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
fetishes. Though, the bill was failed to pass after five fractions in the DPR house of representatives agreed to have the bill rejected.
Capital punishment
Indonesia's continuation of capital punishment, and the often corrupt judiciary and military has also led to political altercations with several human rights groups.
Labor rights
In October 2020, the Indonesian
People's Representative Council passed
a new jobs law that "restricts labor rights and dismantles environmental protections, including by threatening Indigenous people's access to land and the country's declining rainforests".
According to Human Rights Watch, the new law weakens the protections for workers offered in the law from 2003, as well as the existing environmental laws and legal protections for Indigenous groups.
Domestic workers
In June 2012 the president expressed support for the new ILO No. 189
Domestic Workers Convention. However, for a second successive year, parliament failed to debate and enact legislation providing legal protection for domestic workers. This left an estimated 2.6 million domestic workers – the vast majority of them women and girls – at continued risk of economic exploitation and physical, psychological and sexual violence.
Sexual and reproductive rights
From the Amnesty International's 2012 Annual Report:
In 2018, the
Indonesian Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Mahkamah Agung Republik Indonesia) is the independent judicial arm of the state. It maintains a system of courts and sits above the other courts and is the final court of appeal. It can also ...
convicted a woman who had recorded a telephone conversation with her boss where he harassed her sexually. She was sentenced to six months in jail.
Abortion
Abortion is illegal according to Article 75, Section 1 of ''Undang-Undang Nomor 39 Tahun 2009 Tentang Kesehatan'' (Law No. 39 of 2009 on Health). Article 75, Section 2 of the Law on Health provides exception for medical emergencies during early pregnancy, a threat to the life of the mother and fetus, a
genetic disorder
A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosomal abnormality. Although polygenic disorders ...
or
congenital disorder
A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities ca ...
that might create difficulties for the baby's life, and for a pregnancy caused by rape. According to Article 76 of the law, abortion is allowed to be done before six weeks of pregnancy counted from the last menstruation unless in an emergency, must be performed by a certified health professional, done with the consent of the pregnant woman, with the consent of the husband (unless if the pregnancy is caused by rape), and in a ministry-approved location. According to Article 194 of the law, every person who does abortion not in accordance to Article 75, Section 2 can get a maximum jail time of 10 years and a maximum fine of 1 billion rupiahs.
West Papua issues
International human rights organisations have criticised the Indonesian government's handling of protesters from the
Free Papua Movement
"Free Papua Movement" ( id, Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM, tpi, Fri Wes Papua Grup) is an umbrella term for the independence movement established during 1965 in the West Papuan or West New Guinea territory which is currently being administrat ...
(OPM) in the
Papua conflict
The Papua conflict is an ongoing conflict in Western New Guinea between Indonesia and the Free Papua Movement ( id , Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM). Subsequent to the withdrawal of the Dutch administration from the Netherlands New Guinea in ...
, in which the OPM seeks the secession of
Papua and
West Papua.
High-profile prisoners from this movement include
Filep Karma
Filep Jacob Semuel Karma (14 August 1959 – 1 November 2022) was a West Papua independence activist. On 1 December 2004, he helped raise the Morning Star flag at a ceremony in Jayapura, for which he was charged with treason and given a fifteen ...
and
Buchtar Tabuni, both of whom are considered to be
prisoners of conscience by
Amnesty International. A report to the ''Indonesian Human Rights Network'' by the ''Allard K Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School'' alleges
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
violations in the region. The
Indonesian National Military (TNI) denies allegations of human rights abuses in Papua.
In 2005, President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) carried out a policy change away from "law and order" and towards economic development to arrest separatism in Papua.
In May 2010, the release of Papuan
political prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...
s who had demonstrated for independence was announced. In October, a video emerged apparently showing
soldiers kicking and abusing alleged separatists in Papua. The government confirmed that the men were members of the TNI. The minister for security said their actions were excessive and unprofessional, and that they would be punished.
Additionally, there are reports of genocide by the Indonesian government. 100,000 Papuans are estimated to have been killed by the Indonesian government since 1963.
On 30 November 2020, a spokesperson for the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...
(OHCHR) stated that a meaningful and inclusive dialogue is required to address longstanding economic, social and political grievances in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.
Other atrocities include the following:
*In January, three soldiers who had been filmed kicking and verbally abusing Papuans were sentenced by a military court to between eight and ten months' imprisonment for disobeying orders. A senior Indonesian government official described the abuse as a "minor violation".
*In April, police in Papua shot Dominokus Auwe in the chest and head, killing him, and wounded two others in front of the Moanemani sub-district police station. The three men had approached the station peacefully to inquire about money the police had seized from Auwe earlier that day.
The government continued to criminalise peaceful political expression in Maluku and Papua. At least 90 political activists were imprisoned for their peaceful political activities.
*In August, two Papuan political activists, Melkianus Bleskadit and Daniel Yenu, were imprisoned for up to two years for their involvement in a peaceful political protest in Manokwari town in December 2010.
*In October, over 300 people were arbitrarily arrested after participating in the Third Papuan People's Congress, a peaceful gathering held in Abepura town, Papua Province. Although most were held overnight and released the next day, five were charged with "rebellion" under Article 106 of the Criminal Code. The charge could carry a maximum life sentence. A preliminary investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) found that the security forces had committed a range of human rights violations, including opening fire on participants at the gathering, and beating and kicking them.
Some
human rights activists
A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing camp ...
and journalists continued to be intimidated and attacked because of their work.
*In March 2011, journalist Banjir Ambarita was stabbed by unidentified persons in the province of Papua shortly after he had written about two cases of women who were reportedly raped by police officers in Papua. He survived the attack.
*In June 2011, military officers beat Yones Douw, a human rights defender in Papua, after he tried to monitor a protest calling for accountability for the possible unlawful killing of Papuan Derek Adii in May
2005 United States Congress bill
In 2005, the
U.S. Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
revised the previous 56-year U.S. policy of silence about human rights abuses in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, and on 28 July passed the U.S. Congress 2006 Foreign Relations Authorization Bill H.R. 2601 which made specific mention of the ongoing
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
and legitimacy of its sovereignty of
West Papua. Section 1115 was specific section referring to Indonesia, and on 30 July 2005, the Jakarta Post reported a warning to the U.S. from President SBY not to interfere in Indonesia's domestic affairs.
Although not mentioned in the U.S. media, Section 1115 had become a leading Indonesian news story through August and September 2005. In the United States, the U.S. Senate had since early 2001 been rejecting repeated efforts by the
Bush administration to have U.S. funding of the Indonesian military resumed, a ban which had been reluctantly imposed by the
Clinton administration after TNI officers were filmed co-ordinating the
Dili Scorched Earth campaign. By writing and passing Section 1115, the U.S. Congress joins the Senate's earlier efforts to reduce, if not disengage, from the U.S. fiscal and political support of the Indonesian military, a change of policy which brings both houses into conflict with the Bush administration and the executives of companies such as
Bechtel.
Though Section 1115 states humanitarian and legal reasons for its existence, an additional factor would be security concerns due to ongoing employment of
Al-Qaeda related terrorist militia by the Indonesian military and their continued funding programs for the Al Qaeda network. Given that the Senate opposition since 2003 has been strengthening on account of the TNI involvement in the death of Americans at the Timika mining site in 2002, the 2005 decision by Congress may reflect a desire to find more economical methods of crippling the Al Qaeda network.
Following President SBY's denouncement of Section 1115, Indonesian lobby groups such as The U.S. Indonesia Society began renewed efforts to promote an Indonesian image of proper management and renewed non-militant behaviour under the SBY administration. SBY follows the administration of
Megawati
Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri (; born 23 January 1947) is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. She previously served as the eighth vice president from 1999 to 2001.
Megawati i ...
, who in 2001 gave a public speech to the TNI instructing all members that they should disregard the issues of human rights in enforcing Indonesian unity and repressing any independence movements.
Anti-Chinese legislation
During the early years of Indonesian independence, Indonesia enacted a series of laws and directives that affected
Chinese Indonesians
Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries.
Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...
. Foreigners, including the Chinese, were forbidden to conduct retail business in rural areas, were required to hand over their businesses to the locals, and were required to move to urban areas. The policy of discrimination was continued by President
Suharto.
Most, if not all, of the discriminatory laws were revoked during the Reformation Era under President
Abdurrahman Wahid
Abdurrahman Wahid ( ; born Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil; 7 September 1940 – 30 December 2009), though more colloquially known as Gus Dur (), was an Indonesian politician and Islamic religious leader who served as the 4th president of Indonesia, fr ...
. After the era, Chinese-Indonesian politicians have emerged, such as
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (former Governor of Jakarta) and
Hary Tanoesoedibjo
Bambang Hary Iswanto Tanoesoedibjo or Hary Tanoesoedibjo, also known as Hary Tanoe for short (born September 26, 1965) is an Indonesian businessman and politician. He is the President Director of PT MNC Investama Tbk, which he founded in 200 ...
(businessman and leader of
Perindo Party).
Freedom of expression
There have been concerns of declining
freedom of expression
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
during the first term of the Joko Widodo administration, evidenced by the arrest, detainment, and imprisonment of many people for their social media activity being interpreted as an "insult" to the president.
On 10 June 2020, Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian authorities to drop all charges against seven Papuan activists and students, who are on trial for their involvement in anti-racism protests last year in August. On 2 December 2019, four students along with the other 50 students, peacefully protested against the human rights abuses in Papua and West Papua, asking the Indonesian government to release the Papuan political prisoners. A civil lawsuit was filed against 4 student activists following their expulsion from their university. On 13 July 2020, the police charged one of the four students with "treason" and "public provocation."
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
urged the Indonesia's
Khairun University to reinstate the four students who were expelled and support academic freedom and free expression.
The ministry is often criticized for
its censorship, as it blocks websites "to protect its citizen from hoax". In 2020, the Director General Ministry Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan and
Johnny G. Plate introduced a law that requires foreign companies to register under the Electronic System Operator list which could give the government access to the citizen's personal info and threaten the company to block access from the country if the company did not register. The law was revised and passed in 2021. In July 2022, a ban was implemented for several notable websites such as
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
,
Epic Games,
Steam,
Origin
Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Comics and manga
* ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002
* ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
, and
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
, and games such as ''
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' and ''
Dota 2'' as they did not register under the ministry's new law.
See also
*
Censorship in Indonesia
Censorship in Indonesia has varied since the country declared its independence in 1945. For most of its history the government of Indonesia has not fully allowed free speech and has censored controversial, critical, or minority viewpoints, and dur ...
*
Accusations of ExxonMobil human rights violations in Indonesia Human rights violations in Aceh, Indonesia occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s when ExxonMobil hired Indonesian military units to guard their Arun gas field, and these military units raided and razed local villages. Government inquiries ha ...
*
Freedom of religion in Indonesia
The Indonesian constitution provides some degree of freedom of religion. The government generally respects religious freedom for the six officially recognized religions (Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism) and/or f ...
*
Human trafficking in Indonesia
*
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66
The Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, also known as the Indonesian genocide, Indonesian Communist Purge, or Indonesian politicide ( id, Pembunuhan Massal Indonesia & Pembersihan G.30.S/PKI), were large-scale killings and civil unrest pr ...
*
East Timor genocide
The East Timor genocide refers to the "pacification campaigns" of state terrorism which were waged by the Indonesian New Order government during the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor. The majority of sources consider the Indones ...
*
LGBT rights in Indonesia
*
May 1998 riots of Indonesia
The May 1998 riots of Indonesia ( id, Kerusuhan Mei 1998), also known as the 1998 tragedy (''Tragedi 1998'') or simply the 1998 event (''Peristiwa 1998''), were incidents of mass violence, demonstrations, and civil unrest that occurred thro ...
References
Sources
*
Essential Background: Overview of Human Rights Issues in IndonesiaHuman Rights Watch, 2007
*
Amnesty International Report 2007: IndonesiaAmnesty International, 2007
*
US State Department, 2007
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights websiteNational Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) websiteFreedom of expression in Indonesia-
IFEX
The US Indonesia SocietyAHRC Urgent Appealstranslated into Indonesian as well as legislations regarding human right issues in Indonesia
Tapol- a UK based NGO focusing on human rights issues in Indonesia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Rights In Indonesia
Society of Indonesia
Politics of Indonesia