Responses to Conflict Across the 20 Years of Political Reform: Peace Building and the Fulfillment of Women’s Human Rights in Indonesia

Policy Review Report Launch

Responses to Conflict over the 20 Years of Reformasi: Peace Building and the Fulfillment of Women’s Human Rights in Indonesia

Jakarta, May 23, 2018

The year 2018 marks 20 years of the journey of political reform (Reformasi) that the Indonesian nation has passed through, encountering various challenges, including conflict. The issue of conflict cannot be separated from the issue of violence against women because conflict specifically targets women and increases the vulnerability for women.  As a human rights institution with a special mandate for the elimination of violence against women, Komnas Perempuan has reviewed a number of policies that have been issued by the State to address conflicts occurring over the past 20 years, as well as the implications of the policy towards conflict resolution, fulfillment of victims’ rights and sustainable peace building.

The key findings in this policy review are:

1. The twenty years of Reformasi seen progress in the development of policy to address various types of conflict in Indonesia. But such progress has not provided optimal benefits for the fulfillment of women's human rights (especially victims of the conflict) and the building of genuine peace. This is because the available policy framework still contains gaps, contradictions and setbacks that preclude the state from resolving conflicts completely, including to restore the rights of women victims;
2. There are conflicting policy frameworks that simultaneously contains progress, gaps, contradictions and setbacks are the consequences of politics reflecting the democratic deficits of the Reformasi process, due to the prevalence of transactional and primordial politics, corruption and the use of identity politics to reinforce intolerance.
3. The current development model only benefits small sections of the community. This model prioritizes a security approach and has minimal substantive involvement for women and other sections of society that have been marginalized. The development model also presents an opportunity for the birth of discriminatory policies. This situation is aggravated by decentralization mechanisms that have not been equipped with a qualified supervisory system;
4. The perspective and approach of the state to peace and peacebuilding which remains pragmatic, produces policies and implementation of these policies that has the potential to create new conflicts and strengthen structural inequality and injustice, including between men and women;
5. Inconsistent political commitment, limited capacity of state officials and uncoordinated methods of working cause responses from state institutions to be ineffective, conflict-generating mechanisms. This causes conflict management programs and their impacts to become less effective, less innovative, and to ignore the experience of women ;
6. The leadership of women and civil society in addressing conflict, its root causes, and its impacts, has not been supported by an optimal and affirmative policy framework. The leadership of women and civil society has in fact been restricted by administrative-bureaucratic systems, discrimination, and even discriminatory policies.

Based on these findings, Komnas Perempuan makes the following recommendations to the state (government):

1. Integrate holistic responses into the National Development Plan (RPJP 2020-2045 and RPJMN 2020 -2025), to ensure inclusive development goals and sustainable peace can be achieved, especially by prioritizing programs that can anticipate new forms of vulnerability and prevent recurring conflicts;
2. Develop a more comprehensive and holistic way of working to address conflict, including building a full, critical and relational understanding of conflict and factors at the macro and micro levels;
3. Use complementary breakthroughs of existing policies, to address policy gaps and to ensure optimal utilization of advances in the policy, for the interests of victim fulfillment and peace-building;
4. Strengthen legal protection and accountability in addressing conflict, including by developing mechanisms to ensure the enforcement of judicial decisions as part of the conflict resolution process;
5. Establish and implement breakthrough measures to strengthen the process of recovery and inclusive development for victims of conflict, with special attention to women and groups vulnerable to discrimination;
6. Ensure access for women, especially victims of conflict, in responsive to inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making processes, at all levels;
7. Develop community resilience /anticipation of new vulnerabilities and prevent the recurrence of conflicts and contribute to the protection and recovery of victims and citizens affected by conflict.

This press statement is released to accompany the launch of the Policy Review Report about the Responses to Conflict in 20 years of Reformasi and the Promotion and Fulfillment of Women’s Human Rights which was presented today, May 23, 2018, as part of the 20th Anniversary of Reformasi.

Interviewees:

Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, Commissioner (081311130330)

Indriyati Suparno, Commissioner (081329343547)

Taufiek Zulbahary, Commissioner (0812-1934-205)