Rule of law

Rule of law

It is accepted that Indonesia suffers from a weak rule of law, which results in poor enforcement of land use and forest governance laws, and widespread infractions of regulations intended to protect the environment. Communities also enjoy few reliable safeguards to protect their well-being and rights, and formal means for mediating conflicts with commercial interests are often lacking.

In order to support the rule of law over land and forest governance issues, the SETAPAK program is strengthening civil society capacity to investigate corruption, improving access to legal aid, and enhancing reporting mechanisms. Training has also been provided to civil society organizations on how to bring cases to court, and formal and informal conflict mediation capacity is being improved.

Specifically, SETAPAK partners have been investigating and reporting violations of forest and land related laws to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and law enforcement agencies. This is a labour intensive process requiring skill, luck and perseverance, but by raising awareness of corrupt practices, and increasing the capacity of civil society to bring cases forward, these initiatives highlight the importance of developing more systematic approaches to law enforcement as well as improving environmental protection.

In order to improve access to legal aid, SETAPAK partner HuMa has supported the formation of a network of lawyers and paralegal advisers, developed training programs on human rights in land based industries, and in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission, held a series of inquiries into human rights violations in the natural resources sector.

Complaints posts to track and investigate violations in the forest and land sector, along with related paralegal training, are now provided by a coalition of partners in Central Sulawesi, and Muhammadiyah, a faith-based organization, is exploiting its broad membership to establish complaints posts and raise awareness of forest governance issues.

In a novel partnership with the USAID-funded ‘Equipping Tomorrow’s Justice Reformers’ program, training on environmental law enforcement has strengthened civil capacity to select, investigate and pursue land use cases, and other partners are working on resolving agrarian and tenurial conflicts and understanding their causes better.