Indonesia professor Harkristuti Harkrisnowo

Role of Indonesian Judiciary in Promoting and Protection Human Rights

Harkristuti Harkrisnowo

Professor of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia

Indonesia is one if the countries whose Constitution already incorporates human rights stipulation within this main legal document, directing the legal professionals of the country as how to proceed with law cases in their work, including the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. This Constitution also serves as a living document of the current values held by the people of Indonesia. Even the non-derogable rights have been specifically formulated in Article 28 of the Constitution. There are also a number of human rights law enacted in the country, such as The Human Rights Act of 1999, The Human Rights Court of 2000 and various laws aimed to protect human rights of the people. What the Legislature has done in conjunction with drafting and enacting the laws on and related to human rights is indicating the legal policy of the country. This paper is trying to examine to what extent has the judiciary played its role in the country to fulfill its human rights mandate to uphold law and justice. A number of cases will be examined in order to support the arguments in this paper.