We wrote to you ahead of the 98th pre-session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (“the Committee”) and your attention to the situation in Indonesia. This communication focuses on mandatory hijab regulations, Indonesia’s new penal code, the right to schooling, and the rights of young people with disabilities.
Mandatory hijab regulations (Articles 2, 14, 16, 24 and 28)
Since its arrival in West Sumatra in 2001, Indonesia has imposed 120 mandatory local hijab regulations, requiring millions of women and women to wear jilbab, or hijab, the feminine hairstyle that covers the hair, neck and chest. It is mandatory in combination with a long skirt and long-sleeved shirt. The National Commission against Violence against Women reported that as of August 2023, 73 such laws were still in force[1]. Penalties include verbal warnings, expulsion from school or work, and criminal sentences of up to 3 months.
In 2021, Human Rights Watch documented the widespread harassment of women and women for wearing the jilbab, as well as the deep mental misery this harassment causes. [2] In at least 24 provinces, women who failed to comply were forced to drop out of school or dropped out under pressure. [3] Harassment and intimidation similar to those wearing the jilbab also take hold on social media. Human Rights Watch documented messages of intimidation and threats, including death threats and threats of violence, sent to women on Facebook and WhatsApp.
As of July 2022, only about 150,000 schools in Indonesia’s 24 Muslim-majority provinces imposed mandatory jilbab standards in local and national regulations. In some conservative Muslim spaces such as Aceh and West Sumatra, even non-Muslim women were also forced to wear the yilbab. [4]
In June 2014, Mohammad Nuh, then Minister of Education, issued an ambiguously worded rule that implied that all Muslim students in grades one to twelve (approximately 6 to 18 years old) were required to wear a jilbab as a component of their public school uniform. [5] In February 2021, Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim, Interior Minister Tito Karnavian, and Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qumas officially issued a decree allowing any student or instructor to know what to wear to school with or without “religious. “attributes. ” The decree ordered local governments, principals and school government to remove regulations requiring the use of jilbabs in public schools. [6]
In May 2021, Indonesia’s Supreme Court struck down the new rules. The three-judge panel ruled that the rule violated four national laws and that young people had no right to decide about their clothing. [7] In response, more than 800 public figures signed a petition condemning the Supreme Court’s ruling and asked the Judiciary Committee to reconsider, claiming that the rule was unconstitutional and discriminatory. In June 2021, the Judiciary Committee rejected the request on a technicality. [8]
In an attempt to triumph over the Supreme Court’s ban, in September 2022, the Minister of Education issued a new regulation on public school uniforms, decreeing that schools do not require women to “wear a safe uniform. “to this national regulation. However, the new regulations did not require local governments to revoke their respective regulations on mandatory hijab, as required by the previous (now rescinded) decree. [9]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee request Indonesians to:
Indonesia’s New Penal Code (Articles 2, 6, 16, 17, 24 and 28)
Indonesia’s parliament adopted a new penal code in December 2022 that provides for serious human rights violations, adding the rights to life, health, protection from torture and degrading treatment, and privacy. [10]
Articles of the law criminalize abortion, with some exceptions, and now also criminalize the dissemination of contraceptive data to young people and the provision of information on how to obtain an abortion to anyone. These provisions harm girls, i. e. their rights to comprehensive care and inclusive information and education on sexual and reproductive fitness. They also have a negative effect on girls’ ability to protect their fitness and make informed decisions about their bodies. These provisions can lead to accidental pregnancies, which can affect a range of rights, as well as ending girls’ schooling, contributing to child marriage, and endangering girls’ health and lives. [11]
The new law also states that the government will recognize “any law in force” in the country, which will likely be interpreted as an extension of formal legality to many Sharia (Islamic law) regulations imposed through the local government in some parts of the country. Many of those regulations discriminate against women and include provisions such as curfews specifically targeting women, female genital mutilation, and mandatory hijab dress codes. [12]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee request Indonesians to:
Right to (Article 28)
Indonesia will offer nine years of flexible and compulsory basic education[13], adding number one and reducing secondary education. [14] Indonesia does not offer universal and flexible pre-number one education. In 2015, the government pledged to implement a 12-year compulsory schooling policy,[15] however, secondary and upper secondary completion rates decreased by 88% and 67%. % respectively in 2020. [16] At the pre-number one level, the net enrollment rate was only 43% in 2022. [17]
Access to schooling: the Covid-19 pandemic
From March 2020 to March 2022, as a reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indonesian schools were completely closed for 20 weeks and only partially open for 72 weeks. [18] As the government embraced the bureaucracy of distance learning, Human Rights Watch learned of several barriers to accessing education. [19]
For example, a student from a small village in North Sulawesi said that about 30% of his classmates lived in remote spaces where the web was so unreliable that “these classmates [couldn’t] participate in online categories because [there’s] no signal when it rains. [20] Some young people have gone to great lengths to access the web and learn. A student living on the island of Borneo rode 24 kilometers on a motorcycle 4 times a week to locate a strong enough phone signal. to get WhatsApp messages from your teachers and email you your assignments [21].
Some young people did not have access to any kind of device that would allow them to be informed or stay in touch with their teachers. A student from Papua said she was turning in her homework over the phone. But “in my class, all the students who don’t have [Android] phones are indigenous Papuan scholars, plus 3 young new settlers [mostly from Java]. How can you stay informed without an [Android] phone? He also said that while his school distributes textbooks, it does not distribute books on physics, biology, and chemistry “because those books are expensive” [22].
Protecting education from attacks
In November 2023, Indonesia contributed 2,452 troops to UN peacekeeping operations,[23] adding the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, two countries where attacks on education have been documented as a problem. [24] These troops must comply with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations’ United Nations Infantry Battalion Manual (2012), which includes the provision that “schools shall not be used by the corps of army workers in their operations. “[25]
The Safe Schools Declaration[26] is an intergovernmental political commitment that provides countries with the opportunity to make explicit their political support for the coverage of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict; the importance of continued schooling in armed conflict; and the implementation of the Guidelines for the Protection of Schools and Universities against Armed Conflict with Military Use. [27] As of January 2024, 119 states had endorsed the declaration[28], bringing the total to 31 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. However, Indonesia did not endorse this statement.
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee request Indonesians to:
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee request Indonesians to:
The practice of chaining, known locally as pasung (meaning “binding” or “binding”), refers to the physical restraint of youth and adults with genuine or perceived psychosocial disabilities, inside or outside the home. It is practiced by families who believe that the child with a psychosocial disability is possessed by evil spirits, or who fear that the child will hurt himself or others, or that he or she will run away.
Pasung in Indonesia goes so far as to chain other people or lock them in an animal room, shed, cage, or enclosure (including bird coops, pigsties, and goat stables) for periods ranging from a few hours to a few days or even years. It can also be a transient measure to immobilize a child with a psychosocial disability for shorter periods of time, while the family goes to work or when the child is going through a crisis. [30]
Human Rights Watch studies around the world have found that young people who are shackled can suffer from post-traumatic stress, malnutrition, infections, nerve damage, muscle atrophy, and cardiovascular problems. [31] In Indonesia, shackled youths simply cannot move beyond the duration of the chain: about two meters, having to bathe, defecate, urinate, and sleep within the radius where they are chained. [32]
In 2015, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture stated that obstruction “unequivocally amounts to torture even if committed through non-state actors in situations where the state knows or should know about it. ” [33]
Pasung is also practiced in devout healing centers and state residential establishments as a form of coercion, punishment, or “treatment. “In the case of personal establishments and healing centres, control would possibly be incentivised to detain young people because they are paid through the family. In many countries, besides Indonesia, it is a successful business.
The Indonesian government officially banned pasung under the 1977 law. However, this practice continues to this day. An additional 57,000 people with psychosocial disabilities in Indonesia, including children, are estimated to have been shackled at least once in their lives, and around 15,000 were still living in chains in November 2019. [34]
In 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on the Indonesian government to “prohibit the use of restrictions, isolation and all coercive bureaucracy in all settings, including within the family circle and in social welfare institutions. “and expand and publicize community-based, non-coercive intellectual fitness supports and services. ” [35]
In 2020, Human Rights Watch released a global report noting the positive steps the Indonesian government has taken to address the barrier, adding a national awareness and awareness program that benefits more than 48 million people. [36] However, Indonesia’s National Basic Health Survey (Riskesdas) showed that in 2018, 12,800 people, including children, were still chained or locked in confined spaces (up from 18,800 in 2016).
Institutionalization
The institutionalization of young people with disabilities is widespread in Indonesia and has already been known as a specific fear factor for this Committee. [37]
Under Indonesian law, it is relatively easy to admit a client with a psychosocial disability to a facility against their will. The Mental Health Act (2014) allows a family member or parent to admit a child or adult with a psychosocial disability. disability without your consent to an intellectual fitness or social welfare facility without court supervision. Children placed in residential care facilities have the right to a periodic review of the remedy they have received, however, Human Rights Watch found that this is not the case, as many facilities do not even have formal admission or discharge processes. [38]
Detention in religious healing centres is also arbitrary. For example, Haji Hamdan Saiful Bahri, an Islamic healer who runs Kampung ChiLanjang, a healing center for users in Cianjur, described how he diagnosed a 13-year-old boy before admitting him to his hospital. establishment for devout treatment. Bahri said: “I touched his chest, head and legs to do a photosonography [X-ray] to locate his condition. He started screaming, so I knew he was depressed. The release procedure was also arbitrary. “When the [body] heat cools down, they’re in a position to leave,” Bahri said. “When I take them to the market or to play football and the user is cold, it means they are cured. »[39]
State residential facilities and their own healing centres where children with disabilities are arbitrarily detained are extremely overcrowded, unsanitary and lack measures to facilitate personal hygiene. Residents typically do not have access to toilets and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate and defecate. within a radius of one to two meters maximum. In public psychiatric hospitals, other persons with disabilities, including children, are also routinely forced to take medication, locked in isolation wards, and subjected to involuntary treatments ranging from physical and chemical restraints to electroconvulsions. cure (ECT). [40]
Human Rights Watch found that young men were subjected to “unmodified” electric shocks at one of the facilities visited, the Grogol Psychiatric Hospital in Java. [41] This was done without any obvious consent from the patient or their family, and the consent form for ECT at the hospital did not even have an area for the signature of the patient or their guardian. The child’s consent and personal tastes are not taken into account. Manfred Nowak, then the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, noted that unmodified ECT (i. e. , administered without anesthesia, muscle relaxants, and oxygen) is an unacceptable medical practice that may amount to torture or ill-treatment. which can lead to cognitive defects and loss of memory capacity. [42]
The World Health Organization’s e-book of resources on intellectual health, human rights, and the law states that “there is no indication for the use of ECTs in minors [defined as anyone under the age of 18] and therefore will be prohibited by law. ” [ 43]
Human Rights Watch also uncovered cases of facilities routinely beating young people in solitary confinement, as punishment or disciplinary measure. In hospitals, young people have separate isolation rooms within the juvenile ward, but in social welfare centres, young people have been found to share rooms with adults, with limited or no supervision. [44] This places young people in an unacceptable threat of harm and abuse and speaks to the inability of establishments to adequately protect them.
In the six hospitals Human Rights Watch visited, young people with psychosocial disabilities were subjected to physical restraints, seizures, fights, or resistance when injected with drugs. The use of physical restraint is permitted under the Mental Health Act (2014). although the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has stated in the past that “there can be no curative justification for the use of . . . prolonged immobilization of other people with disabilities. . . [which] would possibly amount to torture or ill-treatment. “[45] The current Special Rapporteur on torture has noted that the immobilization of a user with a specific psychosocial disability, even for a short period of time, would possibly amount to torture or inhuman treatment. [46]
Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee request Indonesians to:
[1] Andreas Harsono, “Indonesian Schoolgirls Testify About Compulsory Hijab and Intimidation,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, August 17, 2023, https://www. hrw. org/news/2023/08/17/indonesian-schoolgirls-testify -mandatory-hijab-and-intimidation.
[2] Human Rights Watch, “I Wanted to Run Away”: Abusive Dress Codes for Women and Girls in Indonesia (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2021), https://www. hrw. org/report/2021/03/18/I Wanted-To Run Away/Abusive Dress Codes-Women-and-Girls-Indonesia.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] “Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan tentang Pakaian Seragam Sekolah Bagi Peserta Didik Jenjang Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah” (Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture on School Uniform for Primary and Secondary Education), no. 45/2014, available in http://simpuh. kemenag. go. id/regulasi/permendikbud_45_14. pdf (accessed 6 December 2023).
[6] “Indonesia: Enforce Dress Code Ban,” Human Rights Watch press release, February 5, 2021, https://www. hrw. org//2021/02/05/indonesia-enforce-dress-code-ban.
[7] Andreas Harsono, “Indonesia’s Supreme Court Upholds Mandatory Jilbab Rule,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, July 1, 2021, https://www. hrw. org/news/2021/07/01/indonesia-supreme-court- supports the jilbab government.
[8] “Indonesian Women Speak Out About Dress Codes,” Human Rights Watch press release, July 21, 2022, https://www. hrw. org/news/2022/07/21/indonesian-women-speak-out get dress codes.
[9] Republic of Indonesia, Regulation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology No. 50 of 2022, available at https://jdih. kemdikbud. go. id/sjdih/siperpu/dokumen/salinan/salinan_20220928_123327_Permendikbudristek Nomor% 2050 Tahun 2022. pdf (accessed January 3, 2024).
[10] “Indonesia: New Penal Code Undermines Rights,” Human Rights Watch statement, January 12, 2023, https://www. hrw. org//2023/01/12/indonesia-new-criminal-code-rights of aggression; Ryan Thoreson (Human Rights Watch), “Harassment, Threats Prompt Cancellation of LGBT Conference in Indonesia,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, July 19, 2023, https://www. hrw. org//2023/07/19/harassment- threats-invitation-cancellation-lgbt-conference-Indonesia.
[11] “Indonesia: New Penal Code Disastrous for Rights,” Human Rights Watch statement, December 8, 2022, https://www. hrw. org//2022/12/08/indonesia-new-criminal-code-rights-disasters.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia (last amended in 2002), 1945, Article 31(1) and (2). See Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 20 of 2003 on the National Education System.
[14] Andrew Rosser, “Beyond Access: Making Indonesia’s Education System Work,” Lowy Institute, February 21, 2018, https://www. lowyinstitute. org/publications/beyond-access-making-indonesia-s-education-system-labor (accessed December 12, 2023).
[15] Cep Kiki Kusumah, “12-Year Compulsory Education Policy and Breadth of Participation in Education: Evidence from Indonesia,” Indonesian Journal of Sustainable Development Planning vol. 2 No. 2 (August 2021), pages 187-201, doi: 10. 46456/jisdep. v2i2. 138 (accessed December 20, 2023).
[16] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, SDGs, September 2023, “Country Dashboard: Indonesia” (webpage), 2023, sdg-data. uis. unesco. org (accessed December 21, 2023).
[17] Ibid.
[18] UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Education Response to Covid-19, “Country Dashboard: Indonesia,” March 2022, https://covid19. uis. unesco. org/global-monitoring-school-closures-covid19/country-dashboard/ (accessed December 18, 2023).
[19] Human Rights Watch, “The Years Don’t Wait”: Growing Inequalities in Children’s Right to Education Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2021), https://www. hrw. org /report/2021/05/17/years-not-expecting/increasing-inequalities-inequities-children-right-education-due-to-covid.
[20] Human Rights Watch interview with Tondano, Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, July 14, 2020.
[21] Human Rights Watch interview with student, Sampit, Central Kalimatan, Indonesia, July 11, 2020.
[22] Human Rights Watch interview with student, Wamena, Papua, Indonesia, July 16, 2020.
[23] United Nations Peacekeeping, “Troop and Police Contributors” (webpage), https://peacekeeping. un. org/en/troop-and-police-contributors (accessed February 14, 2024).
[24] See, for example, Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), Education Under Attack 2022, https://protectingeducation. org/wp-content/uploads/eua_2022. pdf (accessed December 11, 2023).
[25] United Nations Infantry Battalion Handbook, 2012, segment 2. 13.
[26] Safe Schools Statement, May 28, 2015, https://www. regjeringen. no/globalassets/departementene/ud/vedlegg/utvikling/safe_schools_declaration. pdf (accessed May 12, 2023).
[27] Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict, March 18, 2014, http://protectingeducation. org/sites/default/files/documents/guidelines_en. pdf (accessed May 12, 2023).
[28] GCPEA, “Supports the Safe Schools Declaration” (webpage), 2024, https://ssd. protectingeducation. org/endorsement/ (accessed February 14, 2024).
[29] Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell: Abuses Against Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities in Indonesia (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2016), https://www. hrw. org/report/2016/03/20/living-Hell/Abuse-Against-Persons with Psychosocial-Disabilities-Indonesia#_ftn107.
[30] Ira Kusumawaty and Yunike Yunike, “Investigating the Experiences of Family Caregivers Shackling People with Mental Disorders,” Front Psychiatry vol. 14 1062100, July 24, 2023, doi:10. 3389/fpsyt. 2023. 1062100 (accessed February 12, 2024).
[31] See Ibid. et Human Rights Watch, Living in Chains: Shackling of People with Psychosocial Disabilities Worldwide (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2020), https://www. hrw. org/sites/default/files/media_2020/10/global_shackling1020_web_2. pdf, p. 49.
[32] Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell, p. 45.
[33] United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Follow-up Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on his Follow-up Visit to the Republic of Ghana, A/HRC/31/57/Add. 2, February 25, 2015, para. 72, available at https://undocs. org/en/A/HRC/31/57/Add. 2 (accessed February 12, 2024).
[34] See, for example, Human Rights Watch, Living in Chains, and Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell: Abuses Against People with Psychosocial Disabilities in Indonesia, p. 35.
[35] UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Concluding observations on Indonesia’s initial report, CRPD/C/IDN/CO/1, 12 October 2022, paragraph 37(a), available at https: //tbinternet. ohchr. org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download. aspx?symbolno=CRPD/C/IDN/CO/1
[36] “Indonesia: Persistent Reduced Barriers,” Human Rights Watch press release, October 2, 2018, https://www. hrw. org/news/2018/10/02/indonesia-shackling-reduced-persists.
[37] See United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations on the Combined Third and Fourth Periodic Report of Indonesia, CRC/C/IDN/CO/3-4, 10 July 2014, available at https:/ /tbinternet. . ohchr. org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download. aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IDN/CO/3-4
[38] Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell, p. 42.
[39] Ibid. , pp. 42-43.
[40] Ibid. , pp. 46-58.
[41] Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell, p. 50.
[42] United Nations General Assembly, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, A/63/175, July 28, 2008.
[43] World Health Organization (WHO), Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation (Geneva: WHO, 2005), http://www. lhac. eu/resources/library/who_resource-book-on -mental-health-human-rights-and-legislation–2. pdf (accessed January 20, 2013), p. 64.
[44] Human Rights Watch, Living in Hell, pp. 52-53.
[45] United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading remedies or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, A/HRC/22/53, February 1, 2013, available at http: //www. ohchr. org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A. HRC. 22. 53_English. pdf (accessed September 10, 2015), para. 63.
[46] United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Juan Méndez, A/HRC/22/53, February 1, 2013, http://www. ohchr. org /Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A. HRC. 22. 53_English. pdf (accessed September 10, 2015), para. 63.