UNRC Remarks at Indonesia's National Strategy on Access to Justice Launch
Your Excellency Minister Pak Paska Suzetta,
Your Excellency Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Pak Nicolaos Van Dam
Your Excellency Governor of North Maluku, Pak Thaib Armayn
Deputy Minister Pak Bambang Sutedjo,
Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,
On behalf of the United Nations, it is my honour to join in this ceremony launching the Government of Indonesia’s National Strategy on Access to Justice.
This National Strategy launched today is a bold advance in the Asia Pacific region in realising the vision of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor: that the lives and livelihoods of poor people must be brought within the rule of law to enable them to advance their own interests and participate in the country’s political, social and economic development.
The consolidation of democracy rests on three pillars:
- Market and free enterprise;
- Efficient and capable administration; and
- Empowered people.
It is essential that the three elements are balanced and complemented by each other, so that the logic of the market does not lead to social and political exclusion. This is key to building the sustainable and strong global and regional competitiveness of Indonesia in the 21st Century.
Through the National Strategy, Indonesia will increase the capacity of individuals to protect and advance their legal rights, and improve the capacity of duty-bearers to meet their obligations under the Indonesian Constitution and laws and its international human rights commitments. Access to justice is a strategic effort to ensure that the benefits of living in a democratic society are shared fairly among all people. It is instrumental in ensuring that poverty does not prevent people from accessing market opportunities, demanding and receiving capable administration, and unlocking their potential to improve their lives.
The National Strategy launched today signals a paradigm shift in how access to justice has until now been viewed and understood. This is reflected at two levels:
First – People are at the centre of this Strategy. It is about the capacity of the people, poor and marginalised people, to call on justice and acquire the confidence, knowledge, resources, and the opportunity to challenge discrimination and exclusion. When we ask poor people what “justice” means to them, they respond that it is the power to stop eviction from their land, their homes and their marketplaces, the capacity to protect their environment from being devastated and to access the natural resources necessary for their livelihoods, the assurance of their physical security, and their freedom from violence. It is also the ability to obtain basic legal documents regarding their birth, marriage, divorce and inheritance, and the equal enjoyment of government services like clean water, education and health care.
Justice then acquires a very concrete meaning that is beyond just the workings of the law, courts, and the justice system. Viewed from the demands of poor and disadvantaged people rather than from the supply side of the justice sector, access to justice is really a question of enabling people to overcome the vulnerabilities of poverty and in doing so to take more control over their lives and contribute more effectively to the advance of their community, region and country. This is a key component of human development.
Second – The scope of access to justice in this National Strategy is no longer limited to the judicial sector alone. It recognises that reform must encompass all sectors that are relevant to poor people’s needs. That means not only reform by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the courts, and legal aid, but a comprehensive Strategy that is grounded in how poor people become aware of their rights, how services are provided to them, and how they participate in the decisions that affect their lives.
This is why, I believe, this National Strategy is introducing a paradigm shift: It is mainstreaming poor and marginalised people’s needs for justice into development policy, and empowering both the people and the administration to resolve disputes and protect rights.
I believe that if fully implemented, the National Strategy will advance and consolidate the democratic process, uphold justice and the rule of law, and transform the lives of people across the country so that they can participate in creating a more prosperous Indonesia. With its integration into the National Medium Term Development Plan, the vision of the Strategy stands a high chance of becoming a reality at community level where it will count most.
This is an Indonesian National Strategy, and I am underlining Indonesian. Although UNDP, together with other UN agencies, was proud to support the process, the leadership in developing the National Strategy on Access to Justice was purely Indonesian under BAPPENAS as the orchestra conductor. The vision is Indonesian, the process is Indonesian and the outcome is Indonesian.
At the same time, the leaders of the process looked both inside and outside the country for the best knowledge and expertise. BAPPENAS established a Working Group to open the development of the National Strategy beyond government drafters and to draw in the best resources of civil society, from Day One of the process. The Working Group consulted nationally and locally, informed by the voices of people and government from the bottom up. They drew on insights from community-level research on access to justice, and from innovative local reform initiatives undertaken by local governments, courts, adat justice, police–community response forums, and civil society organisations, throughout the country. They drew on the lessons from pilot projects in North Maluku, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi through the BAPPENAS-UNDP Project on Legal Empowerment and Assistance to the Disadvantaged, or “LEAD” Project, with donor support from Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, and from the BAPPENAS-UNDP Project on Strengthening Access to Justice for Peace and Development in Aceh, with donor support from the European Commission. They also tapped into the best of global expertise from the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, UNICEF (on child & women’s protection), ILO (on labour rights), UNIFEM (on women’s rights and reproductive health) and UNHABITAT, as well as the World Bank’s Justice for the Poor Programme and the Van Vollenhaven Institute.
The challenge going forward is to take these local pilot initiatives and make them national. The National Strategy on Access to Justice and its multi-sectoral action plans that will be integrated into development planning at the national and local levels are key to this scaling-up effort. In this, we can learn from the experience of the BAPPENAS-UNDP collaboration to support attainment in Indonesia of the Millennium Development Goals, which started in three provinces and has now been scaled up nationally. The UN’s added value is to support development and dissemination of local knowledge, complemented by providing access to the best in global experience that the international community has to offer.
Equally important is for donors to come together, in the spirit of the Jakarta Commitment, to coordinate support to the justice reform agenda that the Government of Indonesia is putting forward through this National Strategy, and to provide the resources and expertise to assist the Government of Indonesia in realising this ambitious vision. Today we recognise Indonesia’s historic efforts in setting the national agenda on access to justice for an empowered citizenry to strengthen the foundations of democratic consolidation and pro-poor development in Indonesia. As the Representative of the United Nations in Indonesia, I can promise that the UN stands with you and will offer its full support to promoting implementation of this National Strategy on Access to Justice.
Please join me in applauding the leadership of the Government of Indonesia, and the efforts of BAPPENAS, in this momentous undertaking to promote access to justice for all its citizens.
Thank you.
