Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights in Indonesia

 By  Akhmad Zamroni

Source: http://www.op.org

In the history of human life, human rights (HAM) –– as well as democracy –– have become a problem that has often attracted attention. In certain periods, human rights sometimes go unnoticed, but if there are few problems related to it, issues about it will quickly spread and attract attention. Why is that? How did it happen?

The issue of human rights has actually emerged for centuries. However, entering the 21st century, the issue of human rights has returned to heat and has received serious attention. The resurgence of the issue regarding this one matter is mainly triggered by the contradiction that in modern times that no longer justifies the existence of imperialism, in many areas there are still various forms of oppression against humans.

Many international circles are deeply concerned about this. To recall the importance of protecting and upholding human rights, the United Nations, international institutions and developed countries, among others, enacted provisions that cooperation and assistance to certain countries was linked to human rights issues. Cooperation and assistance will be carried out with and to a country if the government of the country concerned can guarantee the protection and upholding of citizens' human rights.

Meanwhile, in our own country, the issue of human rights also happened to be heating up again and sticking out strongly towards the end of the 20th century, to be precise during the reformation movement era in 1997-1998. After the fall of the authoritarian and iron-fisted New Order regime (May 1998), the issue of human rights became increasingly heated and arose. As a form of seriousness in making efforts to protect and enforce human rights, one year later a special law on human rights, namely Law no. 39/1999.

To deal with the number of cases of human rights violations, especially serious violations, efforts to protect and enforce human rights are constantly being carried out. Even though at this time there have been many fewer cases of human rights violations, efforts to protect and uphold human rights are deemed necessary as part of an effort to prevent violations and simultaneously promote human rights. This is deemed necessary both in international coverage and in national coverage in every country - particularly in developing countries.

During the New Order government, efforts to protect and enforce human rights in Indonesia can be said to have been neglected; and what is actually happening are human rights violations by government officials. However, since entering the reform era in 1998, efforts to protect and enforce human rights have entered an exciting new chapter. These efforts are being carried out increasingly intensively, while awareness of the importance of human rights is growing and developing.

Efforts to protect and uphold human rights in Indonesia are generally pursued in five ways, namely first, through awareness campaigns and advocacy; second, through education; third, through the formation of legislation (legislation); fourth, through the establishment of human rights institutions; and fifth, through the judiciary (court). These five efforts are deemed necessary to be integrated. With integrated efforts through these five channels, efforts to protect and uphold human rights are expected to achieve the expected results. Further more detailed efforts can be read in the articles "Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights: Campaign for Human Rights Awareness and Advocacy", "Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights: Human Rights Education", "Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights: Formulation of Legislation on Human Rights", "Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights: Establishment of Human Rights Institutions", and "Efforts to Protect and Uphold Human Rights: Human Rights Courts" in the same blog.