State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2014 - Indonesia

Indonesia continued to undermine the rights of women and religious minorities in 2013, despite pledges by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to respect the country's diversity. A number of authoritarian laws were passed, further restricting free speech and social activism. At the same time the government failed to curb abuses perpetrated by militant groups, leading to increased violence and discrimination against vulnerable communities.

According to Indonesia's Official Commission on Violence against Women, 60 discriminatory laws were passed in 2013, including a ban on women straddling motorcycles in ethnic minority Aceh province. In December, the governor took a radical step by signing a new decree requiring all Aceh residents to practise Sharia law, irrespective of their faith. This carries very serious implications for non-Muslim women, who will now be forced to respect conservative Islamic dress code and customs against their will and culture. More than 300 similar by-laws already exist in the Muslim-majority country, with 79 by-laws requiring women to wear the hijab. In some areas this rule is enforced on all women, including religious minorities.

In July, Indonesia adopted a highly controversial new law regulating the work of NGOs and civil society organizations. It includes several troubling provisions that could be used to stifle democratic dissent and clamp down on minority voices – mirroring the authoritarian Suharto-era law it was drafted to replace. For example, NGOs are prohibited from promoting atheism or communism and can be banned by the government after a perfunctory 'consultation' with the courts. The law may be used to target activists working to promote the rights of persecuted minorities in West Papua, where animism is still commonly practised along with Christianity. In July, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that the law 'introduced undue restrictions on the freedoms of association, expression and religion of both domestic and "foreign" associations'.

The government stepped up its crackdown in conflict-torn West Papua following a deadly attack by the Free Papua Movement in February. Local reports suggest that security forces responded by carrying out mass 'sweeps' in the central highlands, torching homes and churches, and forcing thousands of civilians from their homes. Scores of activists have since been arrested for staging peaceful demonstrations against the treatment of indigenous communities. On 26 November, police detained 28 pro-independence protesters, including three women, some of whom were later seen with contusions on their face and body.

According to Papuans Behind Bars, 70 political prisoners were incarcerated as of December 2013 – many of them subjected to arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and mistreatment. Foreign journalists have been largely prohibited from entering the resource-rich region, which has been marked by unrest for decades, while local reporters are relentlessly harassed. According to the Alliance of Independent Journalists Papua, attacks on journalists almost doubled in 2013, with 20 cases of press intimidation or violence reported in Indonesia.

However, Indonesia's myriad indigenous groups earned a victory in May, when the Constitutional Court annulled state ownership of their customary lands. Countless indigenous peoples have been forcibly removed from their traditional areas to make way for palm oil plantations, paper production and mining sites, fuelling conflict and deforestation. According to the National Commission on Human Rights, most violence against indigenous communities in Indonesia has been linked to land rights. The ruling affects an area roughly the size of Japan and some 30 per cent of Indonesia's forest coverage. But local activists say that little has been done to implement these rulings. There are additional concerns that the government's economic master plan (MP3EI), which includes plans for massive extractive projects in Papua and Central Kalimantan, could spark fresh problems.

Militant groups have multiplied since the fall of Suharto in 1998 and attacks on religious minorities are disturbingly common. The Jakarta-based Setara Institute recorded hundreds of assaults in 2013, mostly targeting Christians and minority Muslim communities, including Ahmadis, Shi'a and Sufis. Many of the attacks can be traced back to the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a militant Sunni group with ties to senior members of the police, military and political establishment. In February, a Christian minister was jailed in East Java for preaching without a permit shortly after being publicly attacked by Islamist hardliners, highlighting a worrying degree of state complicity in minority oppression. Two weeks later, Islamists torched three churches with petrol bombs in southern Sulawesi Island, a region tormented by sectarian tensions. Critics of President Yudhoyono accuse him of paying lip service to religious freedom while turning a blind eye to abuses by local authorities.

Shi'a Muslims have become increasingly vulnerable to hate speech and violence in Indonesia amid the spread of jihadist propaganda associated with the conflict in Syria. Members of the Ahmadi Muslim community are also subject to persecution by majority Sunnis. This position is validated by government policy, which prohibits all non-Sunni sects from promoting their faith.

The Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has repeatedly condemned Shi'a for practising the 'wrong' interpretation of Islam. In August, he delivered the keynote speech at FPI's annual congress in Jakarta, shortly after calling for the 'enlightenment' of Shi'a Muslims on Madura Island, East Java, where the minority came under attack from Sunni Muslims in late 2011. The Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi subsequently attracted criticism for positive remarks about the FPI.

Indeed, extremist groups enjoy considerable legal support in Indonesia, where authoritarian blasphemy laws can easily be used to facilitate religious persecution. In September, the Constitutional Court rejected calls for a judicial review of the case of Tajul Muluk, a Shi'a leader who was sentenced to four years in prison on blasphemy charges following the 2011 sectarian clashes on Madura. But Sunni extremists appear to be able to practise hate speech in mosques across the country with impunity.

In September, hardliners used a sermon to launch a scathing attack on Hindus for hosting the Miss World Pageant in Bali. A spokesperson for the Indonesian Mujahideen Council branded the event 'lascivious' and a 'war against Islam', adding that 'those who fight on the path of Allah are promised heaven'. The remarks were viewed as hate speech by critics and stirred debate about the need for effective laws to tackle incitement to violence. Indonesia currently has no hate speech legislation, despite being a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which explicitly bans 'any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence'.

Indonesia's media has at times contributed to negative representations of indigenous groups and minorities. Speaking at an event in Bangkok in July, a spokesperson for Indonesia Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (Aman) warned that Jakarta-centric media 'indirectly ignores' issues affecting indigenous populations. One month earlier, Aman was forced to write a letter of complaint to one of Indonesia's media giants for publishing an article which denigrated the Polahi tribe.

Such widespread prejudice has prompted Indonesian NGOs to establish community radio stations and train indigenous people to act as citizen journalists. Media leaders from across the Asia-Pacific also met in Bali in November to discuss ways to counter the spread of hate speech online, concluding with a call for a new movement to promote responsible journalism. The event formed part of a regional initiative to strengthen ethical media in Asia and gathered experts to discuss the problem of hate speech.