Indonesia, a multiparty democracy, continues to fall short in protecting and promoting fundamental civil and political rights. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is in the final year of his two terms in office, during which he has done little to advance human rights protection in the country. Politically, President Jokowi nominated his son Gibran Raka as running mate to presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto after the Constitutional Court, chaired by his brother-in-law Anwar Usman, controversially ruled that 36-year-old Gibran was eligible to run for president because he had won a mayoral election, despite the legal age requirement of 40.
Indonesian authorities committed or tolerated numerous human rights abuses, including discrimination on religious, ethnic, social, gender, and sexual orientation grounds. Disadvantaged groups, particularly religious minorities, women and girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons, faced continued or increased restrictions on their rights to freedom of expression, belief, religion, and movement. Military and police committed human rights abuses with impunity, particularly in West Papua, where authorities continued to restrict travel and access for outside media, diplomats, and human rights monitors.
New Criminal Code
On January 2, 2023, President Jokowi signed into law a new Criminal Code containing problematic provisions. If implemented and enforced, the law will undermine freedom of speech, religion, and association, and endanger the rights of women, religious minorities, and LGBT people. The law will come into effect in January 2026. In late 2022, the government summoned the UN’s representative in Indonesia following a critical statement by a UN expert on the law, and the UN removed the statement from the UN Indonesia website.
In early 2023, the government promised to consult with stakeholders, embassies, businesses, and civil society organizations on the implementing regulations, but subsequent consultations have consisted of one-sided briefings by officials without soliciting input. Many of the law’s vague or overbroad provisions remain poorly defined, raising concerns about the law’s future implementation.
The new law criminalizes consensual sex outside of marriage and cohabitation between people who are not related, allowing interference with the most private decisions of individuals and families. Since same-sex couples cannot marry in Indonesia, this provision effectively criminalizes same-sex sexual activity. The law also recognizes the country’s “current laws” and could be interpreted as justifying hundreds of discriminatory Sharia-based restrictions imposed by local governments in jurisdictions across the country, such as nighttime curfews for women and girls, mandatory hijab regulations, and other regulations that could affect the rights of LGBT people.
The new law maintains the criminalization of abortion and expands it to include providing information on how to obtain an abortion and providing information on contraception to children. The chapter on blasphemy has been expanded to include a section criminalizing apostasy. The law also criminalizes statements that insult or degrade government officials or state institutions, expanding defamation and “fake news” provisions.
Women and Girls’ Rights
Many provinces, regencies, and cities continued to impose discriminatory dress codes on women and girls. In August Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) held its first public hearing on mandatory dress codes, hearing from female students, teachers, and parents who described widespread bullying of those who refused to wear the jilbab or hijab. Many who refused to comply with the rules, including non-Muslims, continued to face expulsion or pressure to leave school. There were several cases of female civil servants, including teachers and university lecturers, losing or resigning from their jobs for refusing to comply with the rules.
The criminal code’s prohibition on sexual acts outside marriage is likely to deter rape victims – mostly women and girls – from reporting rape and may lead to some rape victims being imprisoned if they are suspected of having engaged in consensual sex outside marriage.
Rights of people with disabilities
The Indonesian Mental Health Association had petitioned Indonesia’s Constitutional Court to review Article 433 of the Civil Code, which bans guardianship of persons with mental and intellectual disabilities. In a significant step, in July 2023, the Constitutional Court partially granted the petitioner’s request by changing the nature of guardianship of persons with disabilities from mandatory to optional.
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has called on the Indonesian government to eradicate detention practices such as pasung (confinement). According to recent media reports, seven people with mental disabilities (mental illnesses) died in detention on Flores island between June and September.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Authorities continued to target LGBT people. In July activists canceled a regional gathering of LGBT activists in Jakarta after receiving harassment and death threats from Islamic conservatives. The ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, a regional organization based in the Philippines, was scheduled to hold its annual ASEAN Queer Advocacy Week in Jakarta during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.
On May 28, Pekanbaru police and public security officials raided several homes in the Sukajadi area and arrested 29 women and 28 men on suspicion of being “LGBT couples.”
Freedom of Religion and Belief
Provisions of the 1965 Blasphemy Law (already in force but expanded by the new Penal Code) and the 2006 Religious Harmony Regulations continue to put religious minorities at risk. The 2006 regulations continue to empower religious majorities within a community to reject religious activities or block the construction of places of worship by minority religions, primarily affecting Christians, Shiite Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Confucians. Smaller minorities, including Ahmadiyya, Baha’i, and indigenous faiths, continue to face even harsher treatment. As in the past two decades, the government has done little to prevent attacks and harassment of religious minorities by Islamic groups or to punish those responsible. For example, on September 17, dozens of Islamic extremists blocked a religious ceremony held by a Christian group in Depok, claiming that they “did not have permission” to hold worship services.
In March police arrested TikTok star Lina Mukherjee under blasphemy laws for posting a video online of her eating pork after reciting Islamic prayers. In September the Palembang District Court sentenced her to two years in prison. Islamic groups have also pressured music venues and theaters to cancel or not host performances by artists they perceive as promoting un-Islamic values.
Papua, ethnic minorities, land rights
In December 2022, a special tribunal in Makassar acquitted army officer Isak Sattu of charges related to the infamous genocide in West Papua in 2014, in which soldiers opened fire on hundreds of protesting Papuans for more than seven minutes, killing four teenagers and wounding as many as 21 others, including women and children.
In April, prominent human rights activists Haris Azhar and Fatia Mauridity were tried in Jakarta for defamation under Indonesia’s Electronic Information Transactions Act (ITE Act) on a complaint by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, a senior minister in President Jokowi’s cabinet, in connection with statements they made about Pandjaitan’s alleged involvement in a gold mining project in West Papua.
Dozens of Papuans, including Marvin Yobe and Victor Yeyimo, who were arrested for taking part in anti-racism protests that swept across Papua in 2019, have served their sentences and been released in 2023. Authorities continue to arrest and prosecute indigenous Papuans for expressing opinions in support of peaceful self-determination.
Government plans to forcibly evict thousands of ethnic Malays from Pulau Lempang in Singapore’s south, partly due to insufficient land tenure, sparked large-scale but largely peaceful protests in September, which authorities responded to with tear gas and water cannons.
UN experts have expressed concern over reports of increasing militarisation and intimidation around the Mandalika project on the island of Lombok.
Key international actors
Although Indonesia will serve as ASEAN chair in 2023 and have hosted several summits, ASEAN did not pressure Myanmar’s military junta to implement any provisions of the five-point agreement reached in Jakarta in April 2021 following the February 2021 military coup.
On August 24 in Johannesburg, President Jokowi rejected a proposal to join BRICS, a group established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which agreed to add six more countries – Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to increase its influence in the Southern Hemisphere.
At the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in March and April 2023, member states adopted the findings of Indonesia’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), with the government committing to implement 205 of the 269 recommendations it received, including ensuring that the new penal code does not restrict fundamental freedoms, repealing discriminatory laws against LGBT people, and eliminating discrimination against women and girls.
Indonesia was elected to the Human Rights Council in October 2023 for a three-year term starting in January 2024. Indonesia’s track record as a previous council member was mixed, voting not to even debate a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that found China may have committed crimes against humanity against Uighurs and other Muslim communities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.