The National Strategy on Access to Justice will be integrated into the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2010-2014. The Strategy was prepared through a consultative process and support from donors including the World Bank's Justice For The Poor Team . Read more
OVERVIEW
Since the end of the New Order era, Indonesia has undertaken significant institutional and legal reforms aimed at creating a justice sector capable of delivering accountable government and a more equitable distribution of power and resources. The establishment of judicial independence through the so-called “one roof law”, introduction of the judicial review of legislation through the Constitutional Court and the establishment of multiple specialist courts and oversight Commissions for the judiciary, prosecutors and police, represents change on a significant scale.
Despite the scale of reform and significant donor investment, continued effort is needed to ensure that institutional changes bring justice closer to the people. Public aversion to the formal legal system remains high, leading to a preference for informal justice delivery systems, which themselves are often discriminatory and inconsistent with Constitutional human rights safeguards. The justice sector still faces challenges in resolving or preventing serious problems which impact upon local governance and economic development.
Justice sector reform initiatives have predominantly focused on formal state institutions, however, justice is not the exclusive purview of the state. Village leaders and traditional leaders are the primary dispute resolution actors in Indonesia, playing an active role in over 75% of disputes. Village level institutions have, however, suffered from thirty years of highly centralised governance. The justice needs of marginalized groups, particularly religious and ethnic minorities and women are often overlooked in village level dispute resolution systems. They require additional support and attention.
Criminality, land conflict and family disputes are the three most common types of disputes reported by communities. These types of justice sector issues have real impacts on the day-to-day livelihoods of Indonesians. With this in mind, it is important to simultaneously address both longer-term, wide-ranging institutional reform of the justice sector and immediate programs to enable vulnerable communities to enforce their rights and secure their livelihoods. The provision of justice services to the poor, vulnerable and marginalized can also help to build constituencies for demand for legal reform and contribute to the process of systemic change from below.
In recognition of these issues the Government of Indonesia has developed a National Strategy on Access to Justice. The Strategy examines how problems with rule of law can contribute to the existence of poverty. It outlines an approach to empowering the poor to realise their fundamental rights, either through formal or informal mechanisms, as a means to reducing poverty. Similarly, the Strategy emphasises that justice sector reform requires not only legal-technical solutions but also a socio-political approach. Key recommendations from the Strategy are being integrated into Indonesia’s National Medium-Term Development Plan (2010-2014).
The National Strategy on Access to Justice provides for a plan of action addressing eight key areas:
Diverse legal traditions create complexity impacting on access and equity issues. Although the Indonesian Constitution clearly identifies Indonesia as a unitary state governed by the rule of law, the normative framework allows for a complex overlay of state, religious and traditional or adat law. Studies indicate that whereas there have been improvements in the performance of state justice sector institutions, for a variety of factors they continue to remain inaccessible to a majority of Indonesians. Local dispute resolution actors, including village officials and religious and traditional leaders, fill this gap providing accessibility and legitimacy but often at the expense of equity. They have limitations in how they deal with women and vulnerable groups, including ethnic minorities. Jurisdictional boundaries also remain unclear. Justice sector programs should focus, in parallel, on increasing the quality of justice dispensed by non-state mechanisms, in particular through ensuring greater conformity with constitutional provisions, and strengthening access to formal mechanisms, which would simultaneously increase accountability of non-state mechanisms.
Strengthening accountability mechanisms, including in local governance structures.Combatting corruption continues to be a key platform of Indonesia’s development agenda. The significant increase in public expenditure at the sub-national level through decentralization requires strengthened accountability mechanisms to ensure effective use of resources. Studies on local corruption and experience from programs such as PNPM show the important role communities and civil society play in monitoring government performance. However limited capacity exists in particular in investigating allegations of corruption, understanding and monitoring legal processes and overcoming differences in power relationships at the local level.
Legal awareness and access to legal information. The poor remain much more likely to have limited understanding of legal issues including in relation to their rights. This limits their ability to obtain key legal documents, such as birth certificates, ID cards and marriage documentation, and access government services, including health and education.
Promoting legal certainty and empirically based policy development. The complex interaction between state and non-state systems as well a proliferation of regulations at the sub-national and national level following decentralization generates considerable uncertainty in the regulatory framework. For example, approximately 8% of local government regulations passed prior to 2007 were found to be inconsistent with national law, with the Ministry of Finance estimating a much higher percentage for regulations relating to tax and revenues. There is a need to support increased harmonization both across levels of government and also between state and non-state mechanisms. This requires strong analytical understanding of the issues and collection of empirical evidence, including identifying needs and constraints at the local level, on which to base policy development.
Since 2002, The World Bank in Indonesia through Justice for the Poor team (J4P) has been responding to some of the challenges outlined above. As part of a broader network, Justice for the Poor (J4P) is an attempt by the World Bank to grapple with some of the theoretical and practical challenges of promoting justice sector reform. J4P reflects an understanding of the need for demand-oriented, community-driven approaches to justice and governance reform, which values perspectives of users, particularly the poor and marginalized such as women, youth and ethnic minorities.
Justice for the Poor in Indonesia has been supporting the Government of Indonesia to draft and implement the comprehensive National Access to Justice strategy, through a mix of research and operational programs aimed at improving access to justice for communities, in particular the poor.
Justice for the Poor works in close partnership with government, civil society and donors at both the local and national level. All J4P programs can be categorized into 3 areas:
1 . Research
Local Government Corruption Study.
Forging the Middle Ground: Engaging Non-State Justice In Indonesia.
Mediation and Community Legal Empowerment Program (MCLE) The MCLE program is a component of the Support for Poor & Disadvantaged Areas (SPADA) program, which facilitates local governments to accelerate development through increasing local social and economic capacity and strengthening governance and planning processes. The goal of MCLE, which is being implemented in Aceh and Maluku provinces, is to empower communities to handle a variety of disputes and legal problems.
These efforts are undertaken as a means to an effective multi-sectoral development process. The MCLE program builds on pilot paralegalism programs developed by the World Bank including Revitalisation of Legal Aid, Women’s Legal Empowerment, and Village Judicial Autonomy.
The goal of the MCLE program is to empower communities in the program area to independently handle a variety of disputes and legal problems, as a means of supporting development, increasing stability and security along with prosperity.
Revitalization of Legal Aid (RLA) Revitalization of Legal Aid (RLA) is a pilot program developed by Justice for the Poor to improve access to justice for the poor. RLA has been operating in three provinces since 2005: Lampung, West Java and West Nusa Tenggara.
Working with partner organisations with long experience in the area of paralegalism, namely Raca Institute (West Java), Gravitasi (West Nusa Tenggara) and Lampung Legal Aid Office (KBH Lampung), the key RLA approach is capacity building of institutions established by the community themselves (legal aid posts) to increase access to legal aid and mediation services, and to conduct legal public education. The program objectives:
Establishment of a legal aid network for the poor in Indonesia;
Increasing the capacity of community organisations to provide mediation, legal aid and education via village paralegals and mediators;
Strengthening national and local government policies regarding legal aid for communities in Indonesia.
Women’s Legal Empowerment (WLE) Women’s Legal Empowerment (WLE) focuses on strengthening women’s access to justice at the local level. A baseline survey conducted in 2004 indicates that in Indonesia, women’s basic rights are often sidelined due to inadequate knowledge of basic rights, unsupportive legal institutions that are not gender sensitive, and limited awareness within the community of equality between women and men. Strengthening legal access and trust in the judicial system will pave the way for women to improve their lives economically, socially and culturally.
Women’s Legal Empowerment has the following aims:
Increasing women’s knowledge and awareness of the law, and increasing community knowledge and awareness, particularly in relation to women’s rights;
Increasing the capacity of legal institutions to deliver education and provide effective services;
To increase the role and capacity of paralegals who work directly with the community;
To increase policy advocacy to realize women’s rights.
A Women’s Legal Empowerment Pilot Program was carried out from April 2005 to December 2007 in 3 locations; Brebes, Cianjur, and West Nusa Tenggara, in collaboration with Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (PEKKA) an organization of female headed households. Over the next two years the program will expand to 4 additional provinces where PEKKA operates – East Nusa Tenggara, West Kalimantan, North Maluku and Jakarta and reach 110 women’s groups in 68 villages from 23 sub-Districts of 13 Districts.
Women’s Legal Empowerment Responds to the Situation in Areas of Conflict and Disaster
WLE has also developed a unique program for Aceh province to respond to issues experienced by women in the post-conflict, post-tsunami environment. This is based on data that women who live in post-confict and post-disaster situations are even more susceptible to rights violations.
To implement the program in Aceh, J4P partners with the following women’s organisations that develop community and legal empowerment programs:
Relawan Perempuan untuk Kemanusiaan (RPUK); (Female Volunteers for Humanity);
Mitra Sejati Perempuan Indonesia (MISPI); (Partnership of Indonesian Women);
LBH Apik (Legal Aid Organisation of Indonesian Women for Justice ); and
Kelompok Kerja Transformasi Gender Aceh (KKTGA) (Working Group for the Transformation of Gender in Aceh).
WLE is being implemented in 6 districts: Aceh Besar; Pidie; Pidie Jaya; Bieruen; Bener Meriah; and Aceh Utara which covers 67 villages in 23 sub-Districts. The WLE Program in Aceh is supported by funds from DFID and will finish in December 2009.
Strengthening Access to Non-State JusticeThe Stengthening Non-State Justice Program was developed in response to a study on informal/non-State dispute resolution mechanisms in 5 Provinces of Indonesia. The main aim of the program is to strengthen best practice informal dispute resolution in West Sumatera and West Nusa Tenggara, based on principles set down in the Constitution. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Supreme Court of Indonesia. The objective of the study was to identify instruments and initiatives at the local level with the potential to bridge the physical distance and conceptual gap between village and State justice, increase local capacity to resolve conflict, make the law more relevant for the general public.
Based on the recommendations of the above mentioned study, J4P has faciliated a Working Group on Strengthening Non-State Justice in 2 Provinces, West Sumatera and West Nusa Tenggara. The Strenthening Non-State Justice Program has been designed by these Working Groups.
The main aim of the program is to support the development of best practice based on the principles of the Constitution, in order to strengthen non-State justice in West Sumatera and West Nusa Tenggara. Specifically the aims of the program are;
Refine procedures/mechanisms for non-State justice through a participative process, that is in accordance with the principles and standards of human rights in the Constitution as well as ensuring protection of the rights of women and marginalised groups.
Facilitate acknowledgement by the State, in particular local governments and relevant justice sector institutions, of efforts to develop and implement best practice non-state dispute resolution processes.
Capacity building of non-state justice sector actors, particularly mediators at the local level.
Strengthening Access to Justice in Aceh The overall objective of the Strengthening Access to Justice in Aceh program is “to support poor Acehnese communities to obtain fair and effective dispute resolution, through a time-efficient, unbiased and humane procedure.”
The program is comprised of the following three components:
The Mediation and Community Legal Empowerment Program (MCLE) which is an intergral component of the Government of Indonesia’s Support for Poor and Disadvantaged Areas (SPADA) Program. SPADA is a Government of Indonesia poverty reduction program that operates in 9 provinces. The program supports efforts improve health, education and infrastructure in addition to the MCLE component.
Women’s Legal Empowerment, is a program that aims to empower women so that they can more effectively resolve disputes, either through formal or informal mechanisms. The program includes increasing legal awareness, increasing the capacity of justice sector institutions on gender issues and policy advocacy.
The Rapid Response Facility provides flexibility to respond to needs through provision of additional training and technical support to Government, NGO’s and community organizations in Aceh. This includes activities aimed at increasing legal awareness through media, mediation training, gender training and support for anti-corruption activities.
Activities that have been supported by the Rapid Response Facility include:
Program to support community lawyer interns applying for legal practising certificates through strengthening pro bono lawyer networks in Aceh (support to Tim Pembela Kasus Aceh/TPKA).
A mapping of legal aid service providers in Aceh.
A study on Women and Adat Justice mechanisms in Aceh.
A comprehensive mixed methods baseline research on the links between legal empowerment and economic livelihood indicators across four districts in Aceh.
3. Partnerships
Developing Paralegalism Developing Paralegalism is an initiative supported by J4P to strengthen the role of paralegal organizations in Indonesia to provide justice to poor and marginalized communities. Specifically the program aims to:
Support an information and paralegal capacity building centre;
Support efforts to have the role of paralegals officially acknowledged by State institutions, in particular justice sector institutions;
Increase the capacity of paralegal organizations.
At this stage the program is still being developed. J4P is providing support to a Paralegal Working Group comprised of a number of organizations involved in delivery or paralegal programs.
Global Justice for the Poor Network Justice for the Poor (J4P) in Indonesia is part of a global Justice for the Poor Network. This Network is an attempt by the World Bank to grapple with some of the theoretical and practical challenges of promoting justice sector reform in a number of countries in Africa (Kenya and Sierra Leone) and East Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
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