Indah, a political scientist with a master degree in human rights from the University of Oslo, has been with the institute since the establishment of the Institute’s office in Jakarta in 2005. She was part of establishing the office from start and has been responsible for implementing programmes in cooperation with academic institutions, with the Directorate General of Human Rights and with the Directorate General of Corrections. Indah has provided invaluable input into both programme development and implementation as well as the work of the programme division in developing methodology and tools for human rights capacity building. She will be sadly missed. Indah will now be working as an independent consultant and comes highly recommended by the Institute.
The concluding seminar, held in Jakarta on the 31 October, brought together representatives of partner institutions as well as various other stakeholders working with human rights in Indonesia. The seminar gave a history of our cooperation in Indonesia as well as an overview and evaluation of the outcomes and lessons learned during the 2010-2013 programme. The main cooperation during the current programme phase has been with two Directorate Generals under the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, those responsible for human rights and for corrections. With the Directorate General of Human Rights, the Institute has provided support to the implementation of the National Action Plan on Human Rights as well as the development of legislation in relation to Juvenile Justice. With the Directorate General of Corrections, The Institute has supported the fulfilment of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR). Working through model prisons, the Institute has developed a system for auditing compliance with the SMR and trained key prison officials in its implementation. Currently, there is discussion in the Ministry on rolling out this audit system nationwide.
Although the current programme has come to an end, the Institute is of the opinion that unique relationships have been built and important results have been achieved. According to Christian Ranheim, head of the Institute’s Indonesia office “there are many areas where continued cooperation can serve to further enhance human rights in the country. We therefore aim to continue work in Indonesia and are currently in discussion with a number of donors regarding programmes in relation to Corrections, Juvenile Justice, Business and Human Rights as well as work in relation to ASEAN”.