NCHR and the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) have an ongoing cooperation on strengthening the capacity of human rights lawyers to use human rights arguments in domestic courts, dating back to 2019.
Training: human rights litigation
A four-day training on human rights litigation was held on 29 July - 1 August. This training was attended by 30 lawyers working for legal aid institutions all over Indonesia, associated with the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute. The hope is that this training will further enhance the capacity of legal aid offices to conduct human rights litigation and advocacy.
Karell Ibnu Malwa Kemali, an Indonesian judge currently enrolled at the two-year master programme 'the Theory and Practice of Human Rights' at the NCHR, observed the training and gave some advice on how to make human rights arguments that can convince the courts.
The need to strengthen human rights litigation
Generally, district courts in Indonesia have rarely based their judgements on human rights. One of the (many) explanations for this may have to do with how human rights arguments are brought before the courts, and the often limited capacity to make good human rights arguments. In 2024, YLBHI gave special support to the associated legal aid institutes in the regions to handle 10 specific human rights cases. With such support, the legal aid institutions actually managed to win five human rights cases, with a few cases still ongoing.
