THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN INDONESIA IN THE CONTEXT OF ‘RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT’

Abstract

The concept of ‘responsibility to protect’ (RtoP) was adopted at the United Nations World Summit by the Member States in 2005. The first pillar of this principle laid down in paragraph 138 of the World Summit Outcome Document of the UN General Assembly obliges states to protect their population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. This paper aims to prove that Indonesia not only endorsed this idea at the diplomatic level but also implemented a mechanism which protects the indigenous community in the event of serious human rights violations. The Indonesian system is based on the state’s obligations arising from ratified international human rights treaties and the national institutions, such as the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Human Rights Courts that respond to the first pillar of the responsibility to protect. This paper presents the international and national legislation as well as the mechanism set up by the Indonesian authorities to protect indigenous people in cases of serious human rights violations. It focuses on examples of the actions undertaken by Komnas HAM and the ad hoc tribunal established at the permanent Human Rights Court in connection with situations where the rights of the Papuan people were violated. Despite the imperfection of the system, the conclusion is that the Indonesian state has the instruments necessary to protect the rights of the indigenous communities according to the RtoP principle embodied in paragraph 138 of the UN World Summit Outcome Document.