Worldwide, the legalisation of customary land rights has become a strategy for resolving land conflicts between local communities with companies and state agencies. In Indonesia, NGOs have been... Show moreWorldwide, the legalisation of customary land rights has become a strategy for resolving land conflicts between local communities with companies and state agencies. In Indonesia, NGOs have been promoting that strategy through campaigns for changing the legislation and directly assisting adat communities in concrete cases of land conflicts. However, success has been limited.Using a socio-legal research method, this book demonstrates the complexity of the legal recognition process of customary land rights in land dispute settings. It shows how the state legal framework deliberately repressed customary land rights over time, from the colonial period to the present. Detailed case studies also reveal competing interests among community members and their changing strategies in facing land conflicts. Finally, the book explores what happened in practice after communities did obtain legal recognition and whether that indeed solved their land problems.This dissertation invites indigenous rights activists and scholars to rethink the efficacy of the legal recognition strategy in using customary land rights claims as a solution to land conflicts. Show less
This study gives a comprehensive account of the public prosecutor’s role in post-authoritarian Indonesia, both in promoting the rule of law and in maintaining the political status quo. It traces... Show moreThis study gives a comprehensive account of the public prosecutor’s role in post-authoritarian Indonesia, both in promoting the rule of law and in maintaining the political status quo. It traces the development of the Indonesian prosecution service, historically and politically, exploring what and who influences its performance, as well as how public prosecutors work in practice.This research is a socio-legal study of the criminal justice system. It contributes to a number of broader debates about post-authoritarian public prosecutors and their role in promoting the rule of law. By combining criminal law, criminology, political science and anthropological theory, it provides an important framework for the analysis and critique of conditions for, impacts of, and possibilities for prosecution services in post-authoritarian countries.The case of Indonesia constitutes an example of the way in which prosecution services evolve in countries marked by authoritarian tendencies. It shows how various regimes position public prosecutors as ‘justice postmen’, who deliver cases based on the government’s interests, as well as on the interests of other powerful actors, such as political parties, companies, or the police force. Such situations are commonly seen in authoritarian countries, where the executive dominates political power, and public prosecutors have become tools of the government in maintaining political order. Show less
This research is about the actions taken by lawyers in Indonesia to win land rights for corporations. In order to perform these actions, they not only deploy the weaknesses in the law, but their... Show moreThis research is about the actions taken by lawyers in Indonesia to win land rights for corporations. In order to perform these actions, they not only deploy the weaknesses in the law, but their strategies are supplemented with an acquired structural advantage: social capital in the form of loyalty of others they have vetted, such as judges, policemen and prosecutors.The dissertation gives a comprehensive account of the field that makes the strategies possible from multiple angles, such as courts, business actors, the condition of the rules, and then continues to expose the strategies. It is concluded by highlighting the specifications to the condition of the Rule of Law in Indonesia which need special attention and offer suggestions for substantive and sustainable legal reform. Show less
In the recent international campaigns against child marriage, there is a puzzle of agency: while international human rights institutions celebrate when girls exercise their agency not to marry,... Show moreIn the recent international campaigns against child marriage, there is a puzzle of agency: while international human rights institutions celebrate when girls exercise their agency not to marry, they do not recognize their agency to marry. ‘Child marriage’, defined as “any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age”, is considered always forced, assuming that children are not capable of consenting to marriages. In order to re-examine, reflect, and discuss this approach to agency, this dissertation offers empirical evidence of child marriage, based on findings from the author’s fieldwork in Indonesia. Why children marry and how this practice both informs, and is treated within, multiple competing normative frameworks in place? The dissertation starts from analysing child marriage discourse at the international level, moves to discuss the political contestation over child marriage at the national level (Indonesia), and then investigates child marriage as a social practice on the Indonesian island of Bali.This is a socio-legal study of international human rights, which contributes to the scholarly field of human rights and children’s rights by using ideas from the other disciplines in social science. Show less
More than three quarters of Indonesians do not have access to piped water. They depend on river water for bathing and sometimes also for drinking water. But the vast majority of rivers are... Show moreMore than three quarters of Indonesians do not have access to piped water. They depend on river water for bathing and sometimes also for drinking water. But the vast majority of rivers are severely polluted, many of them by industrial waste. This book explains why it has been so difficult for both the government and citizens to act against industrial river pollution. This socio-legal research looks at regulation and explains how government institutions have set norms to polluting behaviour, and how they have detected and responded to violations. It also analyses how citizens have participated in this process and how they seek redress for the wrongdoings they are faced with. Does victim involvement offer better chances for adequate environmental problem solving? The author illuminates the complex interrelations between the processes of regulation and redress seeking. Two extended case studies on Rancaekek in West Java and Kao-Malifut in North Maluku demonstrate illustrate how in practice these interrelations can lead to losing sight of stopping the actual pollution problem, shifting focus to compensation and increased social tensions and inequality within communities. This study’s theoretical contribution lies mainly in expanding the insights into the mutual influence of regulation and redress seeking. Show less
Since the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, the indigenous movement in Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest national movements to champion the cause of rural... Show moreSince the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, the indigenous movement in Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest national movements to champion the cause of rural communities. Its advocacy has pushed the government to implement legal reforms that have widened the scope for recognition of collective land rights. In the context of Indonesia’s widespread land conflicts, an important question is who gets to benefit from laws that grant land rights on the basis of indigeneity? By design, such laws are limited in their scope, given that they only grant rights to those that qualify as indigenous. In order to explain how indigeneity can actually empower local communities, this book adopts the perspective of actors at the local level. Focusing on how local land users in South Sulawesi invoke indigeneity in their struggles over land, this book explores the local processes through which claims to indigenous adat land rights succeed or fail to be recognized. The book combines case studies, legal analysis, and theories on social movements and collective action frames. The book alarmingly shows that by making indigeneity a prerequisite for land rights, the most vulnerable people may actually be excluded from obtaining such rights. Show less
Since the 1990s, the number of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) has grown rapidly worldwide. NHRIs are widely believed to be able to contribute to the realisation of human rights, by... Show moreSince the 1990s, the number of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) has grown rapidly worldwide. NHRIs are widely believed to be able to contribute to the realisation of human rights, by embedding international norms in domestic structures. Promoting Human Rights: National Human Rights Commissions in Indonesia and Malaysia addresses this issue by a comparative analysis of two NHRIs in Southeast Asia. It traces the development of both organisations since their inception, as well as their performance and effectiveness in three case studies regarding the freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial and the right to adequate housing. It reveals that the manner in which NHRIs address human rights issues differs between categories of rights, and that the promotion of international human rights standards is often hampered by the contestation of these norms, both within and outside of the organisation. At the same time, this study highlights some of the contributions the NHRIs have made to the realisation of human rights in challenging circumstances. The author therefore argues that NHRIs play a crucial role in making human rights an integral part of both the state and society. Show less
Today, about 1 billion people are estimated to live in ‘slums’ worldwide. This number will only grow and urban poverty worsen unless radical measures are taken. While it is generally acknowledged... Show moreToday, about 1 billion people are estimated to live in ‘slums’ worldwide. This number will only grow and urban poverty worsen unless radical measures are taken. While it is generally acknowledged in the international development debate that breaking the circle of poverty requires multiple strategies, there is renewed attention for approaches that centre on the issue of tenure security. This means landholders are protected against involuntary removal from the land on which they reside, unless through due process of law and payment of proper compensation. The prevailing approach to the provision of tenure security is land registration. And while the land registration approach currently dominates policy, there has been little research into the effects of registration, particularly in urban areas. What research has been conducted, contests the benefits of this approach. As a result, we witness increasing interest in alternative approaches which generally combine protective administrative or legal measures against eviction with the provision of basic services and credit facilities. The author describes and analyses the extent to which formal, semiformal, and informal tenure arrangements that can be found in kampongs (typical low-income settlements) in Indonesia provide tenure security to the country’s urban poor, particularly since 1998, when Indonesia embarked on an ambitious political and legal reform programme. The author reviews the current legal framework that applies to urban land tenure in Indonesia. In addition, based on rich material that was acquired through empirical research in the city of Bandung, there are a number of case studies presented in which the urban poor’s tenure security was put to the test. Finally, drawing on statistical data, the author analyses the urban poor’s perceptions regarding their tenure security and whether and, if so, how this influences their housing investment behaviour. Following this analysis, the author evaluates the socio-economic benefits of current approaches to attaining tenure security. And with these findings, there are policy suggestions and contributions to theory formation presented to further the current international development debate on tenure security. Show less
