ACSC/APF 2024: Indonesia CSOs in ASEAN United Urge for Justice and Meaningful Participation

PRESS RELEASE
ACSC/APF 2024: Indonesia CSOs in ASEAN United Urge for Justice and Meaningful Participation

[Dili, 19-21 September 2024] Representatives of Indonesian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) gathered in ACSC/APF 2024 to reach for solidarity in the fight against anti-democratic ruling, militarism, ecological crisis, imperialism in Indonesia and Southeast Asian countries. The main theme of this year’s ACSC/APF “Toward People-led and Democracy in Southeast Asia” is aligned to the current democratic challenges that we now face as a considered ‘the most democratic country in the region’. About 24 workshops and 12 side events were organised under six convergence spaces, such as (1) Working People, Neoliberalism and Alternative Regionalism, (2) State Violence, Militarism, National Liberation and Democracy, (3) Tech Monopoly, Digital Authoritarianism and Internet Freedom, (4) Ecological Crisis, Environmental Rights, Agrarian and Urban Issues, (5) Minority, Marginal People and Gender Justice, and (6) Peacebuilding, Human Security and Transitional Justice.

In ACSC/APF 2024 Dili, Timor Leste, Indonesia CSOs initiated 12 ground-breaking workshops on recurring issues in the country. The themes include safeguarding online civic space in Timor-Leste, security forces brutality by the unlawful use of crowd-control weapons, transformative economy strategies for alternative regionalism, environmental defenders protection in Southeast Asia, inclusiveness to freedom of expression, hate speeches in Rohingya case study, working people struggles to access decent work and universal social protection, maternity protection for informal workers in Southeast Asia, providing safe space to raise voice of the marginalized and vulnerable groups such as LGBTQIA+ community, reparation for victims of sexual violence, initiatives for human rights defenders protections in Southeast Asia, rethinking ASEAN non-interference principle, as well as the digital rights and freedom in Southeast Asia. Each of these workshops do not only highlight occurring matters, but are also interconnected with other states of the region. Thus, underlining Indonesian CSOs’ participation in regional phenomena.

The issue of shrinking civic space in Indonesia became one of the topics that was underlined by Indonesia CSOs in this regional forum which was attended by more than 500 participants from all over ASEAN countries. Komisi untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan (KontraS), for example, put a serious concern on the use of crowd-control weapons (CCWs) which is often overlooked by civil society in terms of civic space. CCWs, such as tear gas, rubber bullets, batons, and water cannons, are categorized as ‘less-lethal weapons’ and are intended for maintaining public order by security forces. However, despite being labelled as less-lethal, these weapons still cause serious harm and escalate situations. Hence, CCWs lack accountability by the state, as seen in incidents such as the Kanjuruhan tragedy in Indonesia where tear gas led to more than 135 death toll due to the stampede. Excessive use of batons has also resulted in protesters sustaining disabling injuries. The procurement of CCWs should be transparent to prevent security forces from inflating budgets.

TIFA Foundation, Asia Justice and Rights, and FORUM-ASIA also underlined the shrinking civic space in the region, specifically focusing on the protection of human rights defenders in Indonesia and the Southeast Asia countries. YAPPIKA emphasized the rampant restrictions on freedom of association and assembly imposed by the Societal Organization Law (Ormas Law). The group emphasised the importance of strengthening the regional network of protection and advocacy for human rights defenders in Southeast Asia by creating a safe and enabling civic space, particularly demanding recognition of the terminology Human Rights Defenders to be acknowledged by ASEAN.

The group also appealed to Timor Leste’s government and civil society to be the progressive voice as ASEAN observer, and soon to be a full member of ASEAN, to strengthen the human rights protection agenda in ASEAN.

FORUM-ASIA also highlighted the use of lawfare to undermine civic space and institution, trend of securitisation and militarisation of civic space in Indonesia, particularly with the proposed National Police and Military bills, as well as the continuous use of online defamation under ITE Law and Criminal Code to criminalise human rights defenders, environmental defenders, lawyers, and general public conveying dissenting opinion against the government; and the weakening of democratic institution in Indonesia from the recent election; are the examples of how democracy is weakened in Southeast Asia.

The trend of how the government uses lawfare to undermine civic space also became a concern of YAPPIKA and SAFEnet, which underlined how government regulations in Indonesia often criminalize expression and control internet content using vague articles on ITE Law and Criminal Code. Unlawful internet shutdowns and throttling continue to be implemented, excessive control of information is continued through problematic regulations, online gender-based violence persists, and digital attacks against activists are frequently conducted by the state. Additionally, influence operations allegedly carried out by the state were observed during the passage of the Corruption Eradication Commission Law and the New Papuan Autonomous Regions Law. On the other hand, the private sector, particularly tech companies, amplifies hate speech against marginalized and hvulnerable groups without proper accountability. During the 2024 elections, they allowed various forms of hate speech, especially gender-based, to proliferate. It is crucial for all of us, civil society concerned with human rights and democracy, to unite in order to balance the power of both the state and tech giants in regulating the digital space.

Indonesia CSOs in ACSC/APF 2024 also expressed their solidarity towards the Rohingya community, including what happened towards Rohingya refugees in Indonesia. SAFEnet underlined the phenomenon of hate speech against the Rohingya ethnic group, which has escalated into real-world physical violence. In Indonesia, the spread of hate speech targeting the Rohingya escalated during the 2024 Election period, from November 2023 to February 2024, has led to rejections of Rohingya refugees and even forced evictions. These hate speech

attacks are not organic and have benefitted political candidates who use the issue as a political commodity. On the other hand, the surge in traffic and engagement generated by hate speech posts has enriched tech giants, particularly Meta and Bytedance, through the extraction of data. The tech giants should be accountable and take responsibility for their contribution to physical violence, including genocide.

In a session titled Truth and Reparations for Survivors of Sexual Violence: Lessons Learned from Timor-Leste And Relevance to ASEAN Countries, which was a collaboration between ACbit, Pilirampu, AJAR and PASKA Aceh, discussed reparations and remedy condition for women survivors of sexual violence, including the experience during Aceh conflict. AJAR highlighted that in this context of denial of mass violence, obstruction of accountability and justice as well as the failure or refusal or act on delivering reparations. Victims in ASEAN countries often languish with prolonged and even compounded harms. With the absence of government responsibility, the civil society organisations, together with victims’ groups, take the initiatives trying to fill the gap. For example, at Rumoh Geudong torture site in Aceh, most of survivors were not being included in any non-judicial initiatives set by the Government of Indonesia, particularly in the reparations and memorialisation program. With the lack of consultation process with the survivors, the reparation program at the end failed to meet victims rights. In summary, meaningful survivors participation in every transitional justice mechanism is the heart of the movement towards justice for survivors.

The importance of inclusivity in the region was being underlined by Arus Pelangi. Together with Justice for Sisters, Women Peace Makers, GADC, and ASC, Arus Pelangi organised a workshop “Voice & Visibility: Building an Inclusive ASEAN for All, aiming to provide a platform for marginalized groups, including minority and indigenous women, LGBTIQ individuals, people with disabilities, sex workers, migrant workers, advocates, and others, to voice their concerns and experiences to the broader community. The goal is to foster unity across diverse gender and inspire a collective movement to influence change.

Participants each shared their hopes and aspirations for a more inclusive and equitable ASEAN. Some of the points are synthesised are combatting discrimination on the basis of SOGIESC, cultural and religious identity, legal status, health status, and other intersectional forms of oppression, meaningful inclusion and participation of diverse and marginalised communities in the government policies and national development plans; elimination of barriers to the full participation of marginalised communities in democratic process, strengthening the public sector to facilitate the delivery of essential services in a more inclusive manner, including for Indigenous peoples and LGBTIQ people. Promoting art, visual culture, and other forms of freedom of expression to bring awareness of diverse cultures and identities to the consciousness of the community. Strengthening the education sector to be more inclusive of SOGIESC and other diverse identities.

Lastly, a session on “Balancing Sovereignty and Responsibility: Rethinking ASEAN’s Non-Interference Principle in the Face of Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights Challenges” which organised by AJAR, Forum Asia, Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) and Thailand, it reflected how the ASEAN Non Interference and Consensus Principles which aims to protect ASEAN member state sovereignty especially after colonialism and cold war struggle, then being used to avoid or hinder their efforts to uphold universal democracy and human rights values in the region. Forum Asia also stated how in ASEAN, the principle of non-interference is often used as a convenient excuse to avoid addressing human rights issues. They gave examples of how the progress within the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) is slow, where it requires significant effort to influence the process and mainstream critical issues. For instance, it took AICHR 10 years to institutionalise its communication/complaint mechanism, which now allows the body to receive complaints related to human rights violations. AJAR Myanmar, added the non interference principle used by military junta to block humanitarian assistance, worsening the suffering of civilians.

Two of Indonesian CSOs, Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) and The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) also had the opportunity to take the stage and update in regards the recent election as well as its human rights projection in the future to regional audiences. The statements were also placed to underline the regional solidarity in terms of regional monitoring and advocacy within the mentioned matter.

“33 years ago, almost 300 people were murdered in the Santa Cruz massacre, which happened here in Dili done by Indonesia Military, and now the person who is strongly alleged of being responsible of the killing has been elected to be the upcoming President of Indonesia who will be inaugurated on October this year,” said Program Manager of HRWG Jesse Adam Halim, the Representative of Indonesia National Organizing Committee on a country situation report session, Dili, 20 September 2024. The Santa Cruz massacre is only one of the human rights violations committed by Indonesia in Timor Leste in 1975-1999 which led to thousand of people not only been tortured and murdered, but also sexually violated and raped.

Lots of repression happened in Indonesia, mainly targeting human rights defenders (HRD), anti corruption activists, environmental HRD, women HRD, as well as journalists. In the name of developmentalism, repression and violation occurred to those who oppose exploitation in the name of national interest that manifested in some national strategic project. All this violence, which was done mostly by the police and military, indicates that we need serious reform in the security sector. But, the security sector reform agenda itself is going backward, while militarization and democratic repression is getting stronger.

The militaristic approach done by Indonesia has also been implemented in West Papua. Security Approach by Indonesian government to address the multiple social ecology crisis in West Papua has affected West Papuan civil turns into IDPs and land eviction, reflecting the ignorance of human rights violations and militarisms threatening ASEAN leaders.

In plenary session IV “People and Planet First: Toward a Liberating Southeast Asia, Deputy Coordinator of Internal Affairs of KontraS, Tioria Pretty, elaborated her concerns in terms of the excessive use of force by security officers including the Indonesian National Police

(Polri) and Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI). Within July 2023 – August 2024, more than 75 public protests were forcefully dispersed by joint police-military forces and also resulted in serious injuries and forms of intimidation. This culture of violence was normalized and nurtured due to the minimal oversight mechanism by internal and external security forces-related institutions. This pattern of violence will not only cause shrinking civic space in Indonesia, however, will also be closing civic space including freedom of expression, assembly, and association. Unfortunately, this security approach and these arbitrary actions are exacerbated by doors being opened to active police and military become public officials.

Repressions and violations also often occurred to marginalized groups, which became a concern of Arus Pelangi. Together with Justice for Sisters, Women Peace Makers, GADC, and ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, Arus Pelangi organised a workshop called “Voice & Visibility: Building an Inclusive ASEAN for All’ which aimed to provide a platform for marginalized groups —including minorities and Indigenous women, LGBTIQ individuals, people with disabilities, sex workers, migrant workers, advocates, and others— to voice their concerns and experiences to the broader community. The goal is to foster unity across the spectrum of gender diversity and inspire a collective movement to bring about change, for a more inclusive and equitable ASEAN. Some of the points synthesised are: combatting discrimination on the basis of SOGIESC, cultural and religious identity, legal status, health status, and other intersectional forms of oppression, meaningful inclusion and participation of diverse and marginalised communities in the government policies and national development plans, elimination of barriers to the full participation of marginalised communities in the democratic process, Persuading the public sector to facilitate the delivery of essential services in a more inclusive manner, including for indigenous peoples and LGBTIQ people, as well as for the education sector to be more inclusive of SOGIESC and other diverse identities.

In the ASEAN region, social protection is an important aspect in ensuring the welfare of all working people. The term “working people” is broadened enough to include all types of labourers, who are working in the formal and informal economy including unpaid care work and migrant workers. We must use that term to discuss on universal social protection, especially in the context of South East Asia – the ASEAN region, where majority of working people are in the informal economy, such as; agriculture workers, casual workers, small farmers, traditional fisherfolk and ship crew workers, home-base workers street vendors, domestic workers and platform workers, etc, along with those affected by layoffs and unemployment. For migrant workers, addressing the social protection gap is crucial, given the barriers of immigration status, strict eligibility criteria, and bureaucratic obstacles.

While the ASEAN positions itself as a “central” player in making Asia-Pacific the global economic dynamo, its commitment to becoming ONE socio-cultural community with strong welfare program and social protection for all, especially for the disadvantaged, women and children- remains contestable given that all countries in the ASEAN are falling behind in achieving SDGs targets. Moreover, working people- who are vital agents of economic change through their contributions to the workforce, taxes, and remittances- are often excluded from comprehensive social protection such as healthcare (including maternal care), old age benefits, housing, economic risk protection, and affordable, quality public services.

As labor markets evolve and economic challenges become more complex, it is imperative to enhance social protection systems, particularly for migrant workers, informal workers, and women. This can be achieved through a fair tax system where those who have more contribute more, and those who have less contribute less. Addressing illicit financial flows and tax evasion by multinational corporations could generate additional tax revenues for countries in the Global South, including Southeast Asian nations, which could be allocated to improve public services-particularly access to education and decent and sustainable social protection.

Maternity protection is one of the major and fundamental social protection needs of every woman and every child. The quality maternity services to every needy woman and children ensures a quality health of the people in the future and the prosperous future of every individual, family, society, nation and the world as a whole. Paid maternity leave for all women in need, among other important care leaves, is essential for recognizing unpaid care work that women undertake four times more than men in Southeast Asia.

Maternity protection is essential in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

Maternity protection has an important position in the Care Economy, which is currently a focus of ASEAN, especially in 2024 ASEAN will launch a Declaration on Strengthening the Care Economy Resilience Towards the Post-2025 ASEAN Community.

In ACSC/APF 2024, there are several young people across some countries in ASEAN including Indonesia (organised/in collaboration with Indonesia Justice and Peace Foundation-YKPI) and learned each other’s context, also voice out to strengthen solidarity and build collective actions. Youth found some common problems across ASEAN such as human rights Injustice impacting refugee and migrant workers, ecological exploitation instead of protection and forest conservation, and concern in seeing the expansion of militarised, policing states and oppressive state systems. Lastly, they found unequal distribution of resources and access to public services and institutions particularly impacting on quality and equality of education, resulting in young people becoming vulnerable to cross-border labour migration and exploitation, human trafficking, and high rates of unemployment.

Conclusion and Recommendation

1.) For the ASEAN Member States and Timor Leste to monitor the dysfunctional politic and democracy in Indonesia, including the elected President of Indonesia who will come to office on 20th October 2024, who was the main perpetrator and mastermind of past gross human rights violations prior to reformation era;

2.)  For the ASEAN Member State and all of collectively please consider the following issues seriously regarding the Protection and Respect of Human Rights, inclusiveness, diversity, and gender identity. Ensure sustainable and lasting Peace free of violence, oppression, persecution, and digital surveillance. Protection and recovery of environmental degradation, food security, and people’s livelihood, to ensure that the next generation has a thriving future.

3.)  For the ASEAN Member States, Timor Leste, should ensure that tech giant companies fulfill their accountability and obligations as enshrined on UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for their contribution on the spread of disinformation and hate speech that led to real world violence and discrimination against vulnerable groups in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia CSOs in ACSC/APF 2024:

Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Yappika Action-Aid, Arus Pelangi, Komisi untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan (KontraS), Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI), Yayasan Keadilan dan Perdamaian Indonesia (YKPI), Amnesty International Indonesia, ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, Konfederasi Pergerakan Rakyat Indonesia (KPRI), FORUM-ASIA, Arus Pelangi, Yayasan Tifa, Migrant Care, AFA, KontraS Tanah Papua, SAFEnet, Pusaka, KAPAL Perempuan.

Contact Persons:

Jesse Adam Halim, HRWG Indonesia (+6281932171618)
Nadine Sherani, KontraS (+6282114183845)
Arif Maulana, YLBHI (+62817256167)