Indonesia- March 2023

The Indonesian parliament approved an emergency decree by President Joko Widodo that passed into law most of the regulatory and legal changes that were originally part of the 2020 Jobs Creation Law. That law had been blocked in 2021 by the Constitutional Court for inadequate public consultation, and reconstituting it as an emergency decree effectively bypassed the court-ordered two years of parliamentary debate and consultation. The government and business groups praised the move as providing certainty for foreign investors and streamlining the country’s bureaucracy, but critics argued it infringed on core labour and indigenous rights and would lead to further deforestation. Opposition parties and constitutional law experts declared the emergency decree manoeuvre to be equally problematic or unconstitutional, and labour and environmental groups continued to argue that like its predecessor, the new law derogated labour rights and environmental protections. Significant labour strikes and legal challenges are expected.

Sources: Reuters, Jakarta Post

United Nations Human Rights Council experts expressed their concerns about “alarming accounts” of human rights violations committed by Indonesian security forces around the Mandalika tourism and urban development project on the island of Lombok. Various UN experts and human rights activists have alleged a lack of human rights due diligence and a use of excessive force to remove local Indigenous communities and stifle public dissent of the project since 2021. The Indonesian government responded to previous UN criticism with a letter stating local community land disputes had been resolved in a transparent manner and indigenous communities had been properly compensated. The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights replied in March 2022, raising further concerns around the government’s response, the handling of relocations, and the application of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Sources: Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, MongaBay, Office of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights