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Law and Justice in Indonesia
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| www.worldbank.org/id/justice | | | |
| | | | 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 |
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| | | | Note: Data is taken from the World Wide Governance Indicators, 1996-2009, the Governance and Decentralization Survey in Indonesia (2006) and the State APBN. |
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: - Legal and Judicial Reform Sector
- Provision of Legal Aid
- Local Governance
- Land and Natural Resources
- Gender issues
- The rights of Children
- Labour reform, and
- Empowering the Poor and Disadvantaged.
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| | | |  | 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.
| | | | | News & Story |  | Engaging Non-State Justice: An Important Element of Justice Sector Reform. Read More | | | | Community Legal Empowerment is a Must Read More |
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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:
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