Access
to justice should be development priority
Erna Witoelar and Alvon
Palma ;
Erna Witoelar is a former minister
and UN
commissioner;
Alvon Palma is
the chairperson of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI)
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JAKARTA
POST, 17 November 2014
Now that the dust has settled on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s
inauguration, it is time for our new President to live up to the enthusiasm,
faith and hope of the Indonesian people who greeted his election. A key item
on his agenda is to ensure equality in the country’s economic development.
Jokowi’s predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, deserves
acknowledgement for his impressive achievements in international diplomacy,
particularly on global development issues. Yudhoyono won widespread respect
for his extraordinary role in the debate over the new set of development
goals to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire next
year.
Jokowi must build on SBY’s foundation and go far beyond it — in
particular by placing human rights, justice and the rule of law at the heart
of the development agenda.
Indonesia has already taken important steps in this direction with the
2011 Law on legal aid and the national strategy on access to justice, which
seeks to give ordinary people access to legal protection — and to realize the
rights and benefits promised in theory by the law.
But these steps will be ineffective without strong implementation and
inclusion in the next medium-term development plan. Not only do we need to
make access to justice a reality, we also need to integrate justice
strategies in our own development planning framework.
Past governments have referred to the MDGs when formulating national
development plans but the fact remains that the country is lagging behind
other countries. Indonesia failed to meet four of the eight goals — on
education, child mortality, maternal mortality and deforestation and
sanitation. This failure is exacerbated by the country’s economic success,
which has widened income inequality.
Since its inception in 2010, the Master Plan for the Acceleration and
Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI), has often resulted in
people’s rights being violated in the name of development. Last year the
Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) found 845 cases of violations of economic and
social rights, most were related to employment and land disputes stemming
from natural-resource exploitation.
While we appreciate the success of Yudhoyono in initiating and
participating in international dialogs, we will not see the fulfillment of
MDGs when they expire next year.
Indeed, instead of going all-out to catch up with the MDG targets, the
government’s MP3EI has sought to accelerate economic growth that is fueled by
natural resources. This has strengthened companies in the natural-resource
sector and resulted in more land disputes involving local communities or
indigenous peoples.
Only with access to justice can we make development more equitable and
particularly help to distribute the benefits of economic success to the
underprivileged. As such, access to justice is an indispensable part of
future development goals. It should be a priority for the state as part of
its obligation to respect, protect and fulfill human rights and to promote
political stability.
Of course, the government has made some efforts to uphold justice
through the enactment of the 2011 Law on legal aid. This law stipulates legal
aid free of charge for the poor. Unfortunately, three years after the law was
passed, it largely remains out of the reach of many potential beneficiaries.
The YLBHI has monitored the implementation of the Legal Aid Law in West
Java, Yogyakarta and Lampung. It has found a widespread lack of knowledge
about legal aid, inadequate budgets, poor government implementation and
little take-up by particularly vulnerable populations.
Jokowi’s “Nine-Point Agenda for Change” (Nawacita), includes laudable
statements about justice and human rights. To ensure they become a reality
for Indonesia’s people, the YLBHI recommends the following justice plan to
the new administration.
We should ensure the provision of effective legal aid throughout all
phases of the criminal justice process and particularly provide legal aid to
those who have been arbitrarily arrested, detained or unfairly convicted, so
they can appeal.
The National Development Planning Ministry should enhance coordination
between the justice system and those providing medical and social services
for survivors.
There should be greater support for community-based paralegals and
community members in the making and implementation of laws and policies
particularly related to land use and natural-resource management.
Indonesia should support the inclusion of justice targets in the new
set of development goals being negotiated at the United Nations and ensure
that justice goals do not fall through the cracks of international political
bargaining.
The new presidency provides an opportunity to pursue what is right and
must be grasped. Deprivation cannot be defeated, nor can the threat of
dispossession and exploitation be lifted, without spreading access to justice
to all of Indonesia’s people and to the rest of the world. ●
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