Twelve civilians were allegedly killed by Indonesian troops during an ‘enforcement operation’ targeting the separist West Papua National Liberation Army in Central Papua province on 14 April. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), a state-sanctioned rights watchdog, confirmed the killings and called on the government to adjust its approach and deescalate the rising tensions in the region. Komnas HAM documented 12 other violent incidents in Papua in March and April before the 14 April clash in which an additional five soldiers and three civilians were killed. Student activists held protests across the region on 27 April against the killings and what they argue is ‘militarization’ of the region, some of which were dispersed with tear gas and water cannons. 

Sources: Reuters , ULMWP , Human Rights Monitor , Human Rights Monitor, Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2)

Indonesia’s parliament passed the Domestic Workers Protection Law on 21 April 2026, granting the country’s estimated 4.2 million domestic workers, the majority of whom are women, legal status as employees and the accompanying strengthened labour rights. Domestic workers will now also enjoy access to health benefits and social security programs, and state-provided education and vocational training. The Law has been stalled in the country’s legislature for twenty years, and its passage was met with broad approval from labour unions and civic groups. The domestic workers’ rights group Jala PRT celebrated the ruling but warned that significant work needed to be done to educate employers and enforce the new provisions. Furthermore, the Law does not provide for a minimum wage and grants authorities 12 months to define and develop enforcement mechanisms.

Sources Straits Times, Jakarta Globe Jakarta Post

The Central Jakarta District Court acquitted Delpedro Marhaen, Muzaffar Salim, Syahdan Husein, and Khariq Anhar on 6 March of charges of inciting unrest via social media in connection with the August 2025 demonstrations. The acquitted had made social media posts encouraging people to join the protests. Prosecutors had sought two-year prison terms, and the four were held in pre-trial detention for six months. The four were among the highest profile detainees among thousands arrested in the wake of the August 2025 demonstrations, most of whom have been released without convictions. Rights activists hailed the decision as precedent-setting for freedom of political speech. Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra also praised the court’s decision and said it showed the government had kept its promise to not interfere with judicial processes connected to the August 2025 demonstrations.

Sources: Tempo, Malay Mail, Kompas, CNN Indonesia, Tempo, International IDEA

Human rights activist Andrie Yunus was the victim of an acid attack in central Jakarta on 12 March. When driving his motorcycle, two assailants threw acid on Yunus, causing burns over 20 per cent of his body. On 19 March, four soldiers who allegedly participated in the attack were arrested by military police. Yunus is a well-known activist investigating the military’s history of forced disappearances and a prominent critic of the Military Law passed in March 2025, which allows active-duty military officers to simultaneously hold civilian government posts in 14 institutions. The assailants are to be tried in a military court, which are subject to fewer procedural protections and a less transparency than civilian courts, which activists argue could lead to the attackers escaping justice.

Sources: Civicus Monitor, Tempo, British Broadcasting Corporation

Flooding and landslides caused by a cyclone killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed over 100,000 homes in Sumatra in December. Indonesian researchers and environmental experts say the severity of the damage can be credited to years of environmental policies that have favoured the expansion of heavy industry, logging, palm oil and mining over protecting the sustainability of the region’s ecosystem, resulting in a landscape that is no longer capable of absorbing large amounts of rainfall. The central government also received significant criticism for refusing foreign aid and declining to declare a national disaster. The latter measure would have allowed it to access emergency funds and streamline disaster response efforts. Experts speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation credited the government’s refusal on both counts as attempts to minimize scrutiny of the government’s response efforts and thereby protect its public image.

Sources: The Conversation, The Jakarta Post, Asia Sentinel, British Broadcasting Corporation

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on 17 November that the practice of police officers holding additional government jobs is unconstitutional. The 2002 National Police Law contained two conflicting provisions on whether police officers could hold another government job simultaneously, and the ruling struck down the passage, which the justices ruled created legal ambiguity. Over 4,000 police officers hold second government jobs, about 300 of whom are in high-ranking managerial positions. Appointments of the latter have become more common under President Prabowo Subianto, and the ruling was welcomed by democracy advocates as part of preventing a return to the ‘dual function’ role of the security forces of Sukarno-era Indonesia.

Update: A National Police regulation decreed on 9 December was criticized by constitutional law experts as disobeying the Constitutional Court’s decision. The decree allows officers to take on government jobs relevant to police work that are requested by the employing institutions. A spokesperson for the National Police said Article 28(3) of the National Police Law allows for such postings and remains in force despite the Court’s ruling, but allowed that officers will be ‘reassigned’ after taking any such posting to prevent a police officer from holding two jobs simultaneously. However, critics maintain the purpose of the ruling was to prevent active-duty police from holding civilian roles indefinitely–a practice which the new decree explicitly allows.

Sources: Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), Jakarta Post (3)

Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the Criminal Procedure Bill (KUHAP) into law on 18 November, the most broad-reaching changes to procedural criminal law in 40 years. Civil society critics and legal experts say the bill transfers too much investigatory authority to the police, at the expense of judicial or parliamentary oversight. The government maintains the changes are needed to streamline outdated processes. For example, police will now be able to search and seize assets, conduct surveillance and authorize wiretaps without prosecutorial permission or oversight. Civil society experts have criticized the process of the bill’s passage, saying that it was only made public hours before passing into law and the parliament misled the public about the scale of civil society involvement, and have urged President Prabowo Subianto to repeal it.

Sources: Tempo, Jakarta Post, Fulcrum

Four West Papua independence activists from Sorong on the island of Guinea were sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment on treason charges on 20 November. Advocates say the sentences are a case of the criminalization of freedom of expression. The four men presented themselves at a local Indonesian government office on 14 April, 2025 as representatives of the unrecognized state of Federal Republic of West Papua (NFRPB) and delivered a letter seeking talks between the Indonesian government and the NFRPB to resolve the ongoing West Papuan separatist conflict. The men were arrested two weeks later and placed in pretrial detention. Their detention and transfer to a more distant prison triggered local protests which, in some instances, became violent. Human rights advocates say the interpretation of treason is inconsistent with Indonesia’s international treaty obligations, as the four men were not armed, did not threaten or call for violence, and did not call on others to support West Papuan secession. The defendants declined to appeal as, due to the length of their pre-trial incarceration, they were due to be released on 28 November, 2025. 

Sources: Radio New Zealand, Human Rights Monitor, Tapol, IDN Times, Amnesty International Indonesia