The Indonesian Constitution guarantees many human rights, but there are many unresolved questions regarding how to uphold these rights in practice. The database contains some of the cases where courts actually have upheld human rights, and where the case is considered to have the potential to contribute towards more human rights compliant and more consistent judgements in the future.
The database is intended to be a tool for judges, lawyers and other legal practitioners and researchers. It is freely accessible through www.putusanpenting.leip.or.id (in Indonesian).
Currently, it consists of 54 criminal cases, 16 private law cases, 20 cases handled by religious courts (all concerning family law), 1 military court case and 4 cases from the state administrative courts. The number of cases analysed in preparation of the database was much higher. Some examples of the issues covered are confessions under torture, the best interest of the child in divorce cases, non-discrimination in employment, and fair trial.
There are already many Indonesian court cases that can be assessed through the websites of the Indonesian Supreme Court, the Judicial Commission and the Constitutional Court. The added value of LeIP’s website lays in its focus on human rights, in its search function that enables the user to identify the kind of cases he or she is looking for easily, and in the identification of ‘kaidah hukum’, a short summary of the reasoning and principles that could be applicable to other cases. The database was funded by NCHR. It is expected to be expanded to cover more cases in the future.
The launch was held online, with involvement of the Supreme Court, the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, The Centre for Human Rights Studies at the Islamic University of Indonesia, prominent human rights lawyer (and former ambassador to Norway) Todung Mulya Lubis, and NCHR. It is available on Youtube.