2 results
7 - Indonesia
- from Prevention Stalled
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- By Budi Hernawan, PhD from the Australian National University in Canberra, Chris Sidoti, Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney
- Edited by Richard Carver, Lisa Handley
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- Book:
- Does Torture Prevention Work?
- Published by:
- Liverpool University Press
- Published online:
- 08 August 2017
- Print publication:
- 01 July 2016, pp 231-272
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Contextualizing torture in Indonesia
The geographical and demographic context
Indonesia is large, dispersed, and diverse. The world's fourth largest country by population (over 250 million), it spreads across 6,000 inhabited islands stretching over an area 5,000 km from east to west and 1,800 km from north to south. It takes five and a half hours to fly non-stop from the capital city, Jakarta, to the easternmost provincial capital, Jayapura. One island, Java, holds almost 60 per cent of the whole population. The national language is bahasa Indonesia but about 700 living languages are spoken. Ninety per cent Muslim, it has the world's largest Muslim population, but some parts of the country have majority non-Muslim populations. For example, in Bali the people are principally Balinese Hindu, in Papua and Flores predominantly Christian, and in Ambon an almost equal proportion of Muslims and Christians.
Indonesia's large and diverse population, its enormous area, and its archipelagic character create great challenges for torture prevention. About 400,000 police personnel work in 4,576 local police stations, and over 400,000 military personnel serve in the armed forces. The country possesses 441 prisons and official detention centres. Even with the greatest commitment, implementing, monitoring, and enforcing a nationwide policy is a daunting task.
The political context
The last 30 years in Indonesia divide almost equally into two distinct periods. Until 1998 Indonesia was ruled by the authoritarian, militarybacked New Order regime of President Suharto. Suharto came to power following a military takeover late in 1965, during and after which some 500,000 people were killed, accused of being communist. The massacres of 1965–66 were the largest killings in Indonesian history and remain unresolved. In May 1998 Suharto and the New Order system were overthrown in a popular uprising that inaugurated a process of reformasi (reform), which moved Indonesia from an authoritarian to a democratic, civilian political system.
5 - National Human Rights Institutions and the International Human Rights System
- from PART II - NHRI Performance
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- By Chris Sidoti
- Edited by Ryan Goodman, New York University School of Law, Thomas Pegram, New York University School of Law
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- Book:
- Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 14 November 2011, pp 93-123
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
National human rights institutions (NHRIs or national institutions) and the international human rights system have a history of engagement but too often it has been one sided. Although national human rights institutions are the creations of their own domestic laws and processes, their existence is closely connected with the international human rights system that has nurtured and promoted them for many decades, especially since 1993. The international system now looks to the institutions to play significant roles through engagement with its mechanisms and processes. Yet, national institutions have often been slow to respond to this expectation and few make more than sporadic, ad hoc contributions. This chapter examines the relationship. It discusses the importance of international engagement by national institutions and describes the opportunities and procedures for engagement that are available if national institutions are prepared to use them. It argues that the international human rights system now needs their support and contribution and that it is in the interests of the institutions themselves to respond positively.
National Institutions Are Products of the International System
Although the first national institutions were established in the late 1970s and 1980s, their growth in numbers and strength can be traced directly to the strong endorsement they received from the Second World Conference on Human Rights in 1993:
The World Conference on Human Rights reaffirms the important and constructive role played by national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights, in particular in their advisory capacity to the competent authorities, their role in remedying human rights violations, in the dissemination of human rights information, and education in human rights.
The World Conference on Human Rights encourages the establishment and strengthening of national institutions, having regard to the “Principles relating to the status of national institutions” and recognizing that it is the right of each State to choose the framework which is best suited to its particular needs at the national level.
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