International Human Rights and Local Courts: Human Rights Interpretation in Indonesia

This book addresses the technicalities of how international human rights law can be applied at the domestic level through a case study of the human rights methodology of the Indonesian judiciary. Numerous international human rights treaties have been ratified by States parties all around the world. However, local implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities with every State struggling to realise rights to varying degrees. This reveals a gap between the standards of human rights as envisaged by the law and those experienced by rights holders at the local level. This work analyses how Indonesian courts interpret and apply human rights. It discusses the position of human rights within specific areas of Indonesian law: constitutional law, criminal law and private law. It analyses how courts have dealt with specific cases within these fields of law. Its key contribution lies in its detailed attention to the role of the Indonesian judiciary in implementing human rights, as well as to the influence of international law, and the role that actors other than the judiciary play in this process. It also incorporates international comparative perspectives. The book will be of particular interest to human rights scholars concerned with national judiciaries’ role in human rights implementation, and to scholars, judges, civil society actors and legal practitioners working with law and human rights in Indonesia.

Aksel Tømte is senior adviser at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo. He has more than 15 years’ experience in managing Official Development Assistance for the advancement of human rights and has organized research, courses and training targeting mainly Indonesian audiences.

Eko Riyadi is law lecturer and the Head of the Centre for Human Rights Studies at the Islamic University of Indonesia. Riyadi is one of the founders, and a board member of the Indonesian Lecturer Association for Human Rights and the Southeast Asian Human Rights Studies Network.