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Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM)

ELSAM was established in August 1993. ELSAM's legal entity was changed from a foundation to that of a limited association in July 2002. The objective of this alteration is to make the organization becomes more democratic and accountable to its constituents. The Article of Association had been officially recognized by the public notary and in the process of legalization at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

History
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, ELSAM, was established in 1993 in the spirit of encouraging the development of a democratic political order, by means of strengthening civil society through advocacy and promotion of human rights in Indonesia. Having worked for more than five years on promotion of responsibility mechanism of gross human rights violation, civil and political rights in particular, in the few years ahead ELSAM will initiate more advocacy works to encourage the development of accountability mechanism of economic, social and cultural rights violations. This choice was deliberately decided in regards of indivisibility and interdependence of the two categories.

The reform period began with the downfall of the Soeharto regime in 1998. During this period, many human rights defender organizations and civil society has been encouraged to reveal the gross human rights violations taking place during the authoritarian regime. Among these efforts are: the establishment of human rights court ad hoc for East Timorese cases, as well as for Tanjung Priok, the promotion of the establishment of Truth Commission and Reconciliation, the establishment of independent inquiry team for Trisakti and Semanggi cases in 1999. The development of accountability mechanisms as mentioned above could put the impunity to an end. The latest development showed that those instruments are likely to be an impunity instrument for the gross human rights violations. Thus the few years ahead the struggle for fighting against impunity will still be the main work to guarantee better enjoyment of human rights, victims in particular. In this regards, revealing the truth about gross human rights violations in the past would provide important step in bringing the perpetrator to justice and provide reparation to the victims.

Besides, many developments in political structure have also taken place during this period. The implementation of autonomy policy brings about important changes in relation between central government and local government. In one side, this encourage human rights organization of better enjoyment of human rights, but in the other side, this lead to the spread out of gross human rights violations pattern among the regions. The escalating of violence caused by conflicts over natural resources management obviously indicates this symptom. The question of justice comes along this line, poverty, low quality of education and health mainly in remote areas, disparity of welfare between central and peripheral areas are some of the main question increasing presently. Considering this situation the challenge to reveal the gross human rights violations of Economic, social and cultural rights couldn’t be abandoned. The enjoyment of these rights will strongly encourage the better enjoyment of human rights as a whole.

Responding these situations, within the internal organization, the spirit of encourage the development of democratic organization has motivated ELSAM to change its form from foundation to the more constituent based organization that is Association. This change was also coincided with the effort in responding a tendency of the government to control NGO through stipulating Foundation Act in 2002. This change is expected to provide strong support to its works in the future.

ELSAM held internal meeting, particularly strategic planning meeting from 9th - 12th May 2006 formulate its mission and advocacy activities. Having this meeting, ELSAM deliberately decided to continue its works on the settlement of gross human rights violations taking place during the new order era, as well as the development of accountability mechanism of gross human rights violations to fights against impunity and delivering justice to the victims. ELSAM will also take the effort to reveal the economic, social, and cultural rights violation as gross human rights violations into account.

Overall program for the organization
Vision: ELSAM believes that human rights and respect towards human rights are the main prerequisite for the establishment of a democratic civil-society that attains socio-economic justice.

Mission: Such vision is translated into ELSAM’s mission is to promote the existence of a society that respects the values of human rights and democracy and attains social justice as well as gender sensitivity.

Goal:
In general, ELSAM’s overall programs goal is aimed to encourage and stimulate the realization and establishment of a social order within society respecting human rights values, democracy, social and economic justice, and gender perspective throughout Indonesia.

Main programs:
1. Settlement of Gross Violations of Human Rights, including Past Human Rights Violations. In handling this issue, ELSAM will run a program that covers activities and efforts for the empowerment of an established institution, which will work for the settlement of gross violations of human rights; and pulverize authoritarianism nature within institution, policy or culture that hinder the settlement process of gross violations of human rights;
2. Reinforcement of Human Rights Protection from the Hazard of Market Fundamentalism, Religious Fundamentalism and Communalism. In handling this issue, ELSAM will run a program that covers activities and efforts that concentrate on human rights protection strategy in the local level and promotion of human rights fulfillment in all state’s policies;
3. ELSAM Institutional Building through Institutional Development, Capacity Empowerment and Reinforcement of Institutional Capacity and Accountability. In handling this issue, ELSAM will run a program that covers activities and efforts focusing on strategy to increase organization capacity, management and staff to make it adequate to support the accomplishment of ELSAM vision and mission.

Main activities:
Research and Study of Alternative Policy Development
The program is designed to provide strong analysis in developing policy advocacy. The program covers three main activities, namely (1) study of policy or legal impacts on human rights, particularly policy regarding the settlement of human rights violation in the past, policy that has legal impact on the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, (2) study on international human rights instruments and other peaceful human rights settlement mechanism, (3) study on accountability mechanism of gross human rights violation in economic, social, and cultural rights, and (4) legal drafting.

Advocacy and Campaign
The program is designed to foster public opinion through seminars, conferences, public debates, and mass media program.

Publication
The program is designed to collect and process data information related to human rights violations and to disseminate information to networks and society at large including producing ELSAM publication.

Workshop and Training
This program is designed to offer human rights education and training program in the priority regions and sectional network of ELSAM. Besides human rights training are also provided initiative workshop on economic, social, and cultural rights monitoring, human rights mechanism in general for student, human rights defenders and lawyers.

Monitoring and Investigation
This program is designed to facilitate the ongoing rapid changes and its implication to the human rights violations. Besides, it provides necessary data to conduct study and research to develop alternative policy in preventing gross human rights violations.

Lobby
This program is designed separately from advocacy and campaign program in order to intensify its function in policy advocacy. This program is specifically addressing the important of establishing policies that adopted human rights perspective standards through lobbying the parliament and related government institution

Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation
This program is designed to develop good planning, monitoring and evaluation system to support the implementation of overall programs of ELSAM.

Co-operation
ELSAM develops co-operation and collaboration to support its programs’ implementation. The collaboration and cooperation has been developed by facilitating and establishing a network for human rights defenders, human rights lawyers association, monitoring and promoting economic, social, and cultural rights, organizations that work for the victims of past human rights violations, and victims’ organizations of past human rights violations in different regions. Besides relation and cooperation has also developed with the government institutions (Directorate General of Human Rights of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, etc.), members of parliament, the Supreme Court, the National Commission on Violence Against Women, and the National Commission on Human Rights

There are two different kinds of human rights network supported and facilitated by ELSAM. Firstly, networks that based on geographical position in which ELSAM provides technical assistance support. Together with them ELSAM develop human rights advocacy both in civil and political rights campaign as well as in economic, social, and cultural rights campaign. Besides ELSAM also develop network and collaboration with local NGOs particularly in conflict areas such as Papua working groups on Justice and Peace in Jayapura, and Alliance of Indigenous People of the Archipelago.

In the public policy research and advocacy, ELSAM develops collaboration with many national level NGOs, namely; in promoting human rights ELSAM develops collaboration with KONTRAS, DEMOS, LBH Apik, AJI (Independent Journalist Association), Desantara, HuMa, ATMA Solo, for natural resources policy with WALHI, Working group on natural resources management (POKJA PSDA), lawyers association for environment activists (TAPAL), and Sawit Watch. In promoting peaceful settlement of past human rights violations ELSAM develops collaboration with victims organization, Syarikat Indonesia, Voluntary Team for Humanity (TRuK), Lingkar Tutur Perempuan; the specific issues ELSAM take part actively in several networks namely, NGO Coalition on Human Rights Court, Consortium of Migrant Worker Defenders, Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), and National Commission on Anti-Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan).

In addition to the network in national level, ELSAM also develops cooperation with several educational institution particularly center of human rights studies, among them are Padjajaran University Bandung, Surabaya University (UBAYA), Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta, Airlangga University Surabaya, Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, PSIK Paramadina University, Puskapol University of Indonesia, etc.

In international level, ELSAM also enter into cooperation and collaboration with NGOs at regional and international level. There are EED (Germany), MISEREOR (Germany), HIVOS (Netherland), 11.11.11 (Belgium), Forum Asia Bangkok, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), CICC, Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) Sweden, APT Switzerland, Equitas Canada, Indonesia-Australia Legal Development Facility, The Asia Foundation, Ford Foundation, New Zealand Aid, and is being involved intensively in International NGOs Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID).

Monitoring and Evaluation
The implementation of ELSAM program is to be monitored by Board of Association and Executive Director. Each Deputy Director will prepare monitoring mechanism day by day, each week, and once in three months, which then will be worked out with the Deputy Director. Internal evaluation on the implementation of each program is designed of being conducted once in a year, in addition to making overall evaluation every three years.

The overall evaluation conducted every three years is opened an opportunity for the participation of the partner NGOs and also supervision conducted by an independent external evaluator. For financial report, ELSAM was audited by Public Accounting Firm Paul Hadiwinata, Hidayat, Arsono & Partners.

Current projects/activities undertaken by ELSAM
Many of the mechanisms necessary for enforcing a minimum standard of human rights already exist, but only superficially. Much of ELSAM’s work focuses on the practical resolution of problems in the face of a government whose commitment to human rights has thus far come in the form of hollow institutions that have not been able to effect much change. ELSAM’s intervention strategy generally begins with research and self-education before using this information to educate others. Information is disseminated through a number of channels, including focus groups, workshops, print and journalistic media. Concurrently with its educational activities, ELSAM conducts meetings with key figures, such as officials in all branches of government, and it sometimes writes alternate drafts of important changes in legislation.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Since before inception of the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), ELSAM has been an advocate for victims under the old authoritarian regime; many of the perpetrators of these crimes are still in positions of power today. The settlement of past human rights violations is important for the unity and development of the country, but judicial procedures alone cannot handle the innumerable victims whose suffering has still not been recognized. Therefore, extra-judicial systems such as TRCs are necessary for the satisfactory resolution of these past issues. The goal of a TRC is not punishment, but rehabilitation of the victims and of the social system.

ELSAM’s activities with regard to the TRC started with academic research and continued with seminars, workshops and dissemination of materials on TRCs. The government, and the military in particular, is reluctant to act on its mandate for the creation of a TRC, and one of ELSAM’s priorities is to maintain pressure on the government to ensure that the TRC is realized. To this end, ELSAM has formed a network, not only with other NGOs but also with victims who will be affected by the decisions of the TRC.

TRC for Aceh
As Indonesia is trying to work out a TRC for the entire country, the House of Representatives is also working to set up a similar tribunal for the crimes that took place in Aceh. The tentative peace that has existed since the 2004 tsunami is threatened by the bill passed by the House of Representatives; while it affords greater autonomy to Aceh than to any other Indonesian state, the degree of control is less than was hoped for after the agreement signed in Helsinki. One of ELSAM’s priorities is to ensure that, per the Helsinki truce, a TRC is set up for the crimes committed in Aceh.

International Criminal Court
ELSAM is monitoring and attempting to accelerate the progress of the government’s plan to ratify the Rome Statute, which will grant the International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction over individuals accused of contravening international norms of human rights if Indonesia does not fulfill its duty to do so. As part of this process, ELSAM envisions some amendments to the Human Rights Courts and the law that governs it; although several articles in these codes were modeled after the Rome Statute, they have been worded such that they could be construed as being narrower than the original statute intended. If human rights crimes can only be prosecuted under current Indonesian law, many violators will slip through the cracks, many of which they helped design.

ELSAM has already begun implementation of its action plan, which includes research for publications, lobbying of key officials and governmental bodies, focus group discussions with influential academics, a media campaign and launch of educational materials. These activities are designed not only to garner support for the ratification of the Rome Statute but also to gain a feel of the general sentiment surrounding ratification and address any concerns.

Human Rights Court
As discussed in the overview of the Human Rights Courts, the laws are written such that perpetrators of gross violations of human rights have many opportunities to escape justice. To ensure accountability, ELSAM is working with the Komnas HAM, and the Supreme Court to develop standard interpretations of certain articles. Because Supreme Court regulations are binding on all courts under its jurisdiction, any interpretations that it hands down must be adopted by the Human Rights Court and the general criminal courts, among others.

Criminal Courts and Procedure
The Ministry of Justice is currently in the process of preparing a proposal to submit to Parliament for the assimilation of all articles concerning criminal behavior into KUHP, the criminal code. In collaboration with Komnas HAM, ELSAM has written its revisions to the proposed criminal code. One of the main thrusts of the program is to keep the articles on gross violations of human rights and misuse of power separate from those concerning ordinary crimes to preserve an appreciation for the unusual severity of these violations. Other foci include dissent on the criminalization of blasphemy, free speech, and ideology.

There are also more pragmatic reasons for excluding certain articles from the KUHP. All crimes within the code are subject to the same rules of prosecution and evidence. The aforementioned crimes, however, are difficult to prove by the rules in place, so they need individualized standards addressing such complexities as the lack of evidence for certain crimes and the definitions of crimes in general.

To this end, ELSAM is effecting change through education. In several major cities throughout Indonesia, we have worked in conjunction with experts in the field of criminal law and with universities to hold focus group discussions on the proposed changes. In the frame of Criminal Code Reform, ELSAM had also organized series of public discussions to criticize the Criminal Code Draft bill in a number of cities in Indonesia, namely: (1) Jayapura, Papua, in cooperation with LP3AP Jayapura, (2) Samarinda, East Kalimantan, in collaboration with LBH APIK East Kalimantan, (3) Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, together with LKBH Pena Kupang, (4) Manado, North Sulawesi, working together with LBH APIK Manado, and (5) Palu, Central Sulawesi, in partnership with KPKPST Palu. The participants came from various background such as NGOs, law enforcement officers, government officials, religious groups, academicians, press, students and civil society.

Witness Protection
Safeguarding of whistleblowers, witnesses and their lawyers is essential to eliminating corruption in Indonesia. Often, witness testimony is the only evidence in a case or whistleblowers are the only ones positioned to come forth with evidence, and they need assurance that they will not suffer professionally or personally for exposing the truth. Parliament is planning to implement witness protection laws, with a draft currently under debate. Because the witness protection laws are being written from scratch, ELSAM has a unique opportunity to lobby to incorporate its ideals into the original draft. Working with a network of human rights NGOs, ELSAM has submitted a revision of Parliament’s draft that devotes more attention to gender issues and witness and victim rights/protections with regard to society and the government. The revised draft also sanctions for those who harm witnesses or fail in a duty to protect them and provides a broader definition of a witness that includes whistleblowers, who are left out of the current draft.

Anti-Torture Campaign
In 2006, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), an international NGO based in Geneva, have agreed to co-operate in a global five-year project for the prevention of torture in Indonesia. Following are activities that have been implemented throughout 2006-2007:
1. Two APT guides have been translated into Indonesian language and published jointly by ELSAM and APT, namely (1) Monitoring Places of Detention: a Practical Guide and (2) The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture: a Manual for Prevention (OPCAT. In addition, the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture: a Manual for Prevention: Frequently asked Questions (“FAQ Leaflet”) also published and distributed

2. Two workshops have been jointly convened by ELSAM, APT and OMCT (World Organization against Torture) for Indonesian NGOs on the engagement of NGOs with the UN machineries, notably the Committee against Torture (CAT).

3. In November 2007, on the occasion of the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Mr. Manfred Nowak, to Indonesia, ELSAM and APT has convened a high-level roundtable discussion on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and the possibility for Indonesia to immediately ratify the OPCAT. This event was attended by representatives from relevant Indonesian State institutions.

For 2008 program of work, ELSAM will continue working on the shadow report on torture situation in Indonesia, which will be submitted to the Committee against Torture (CAT) in May 2008. In addition, ELSAM is also planning to convene training on monitoring of detention places for Komnas HAM, Komnas Perempuan, LBH Jakarta and other NGOs undertake visits to places of detention.

Advocacy
ELSAM has joined a network of NGOs in advocating the rights of indigenous people, particularly with regard to property rights. It has also protested the dismissal of a corruption charges against Soeharto and the lack of liability imposed by the East Timor tribunal in the belief that deterrence and justice will only be achieved by accountability for past crimes.

Most recently, ELSAM has focused much of it energy in lobbying the government to recognize land rights of traditional communities. Parts of its efforts are focused on policy change making it more feasible for a group’s land rights to be recognized. Another of the means through which it is attempting to effect change is by pushing a case concerning indigenous peoples in the forest on the border of Malaysia. Despite Indonesia’s failure to grant the CERD committee jurisdiction to hear complaints, ELSAM also has plans to inform them of the government’s failure to grant land rights to its indigenous peoples. This move is intended more to inform the international community of the problems inherent in Indonesia’s system of land than to try to force action by the committee.

Apart from that, ELSAM also concentrates on the advocacy of people’s rights for access of natural resources when they had to face business operation from extractive companies dominated by multi-national corporations. Case in point is advocacy for the people in North Sumatera and Pontianak, West Kalimantan, who had to deal with PT London Sumatera, and in Kalimantan there were cases of land dispute between people against PT Mas Dua and PT Wilmar, both are palm oil plantation companies. This advocacy is part of our struggle, as human rights focused institution, against pauperization practice, to become involve in the effort of poverty reduction that now has become a global agenda.

Anti-fundamentalism
In recent years, fundamental groups have become more vocal and insistent upon their agendas, declaring opposition to all, who are not allied with their cause. They generally seek to advance religious ideals and their actions rage from peaceful demonstrations to physical aggression. The most common points of dispute are the freedoms of religion and expression implicated in Article 28E of the Constitution, which the groups interpret as a weapon that they can use to impose their beliefs on others.

Because these groups have no central organization or action plan, ELSAM must combat their fundamentalism one step at a time. It provides support to organizations that have been threatened by these groups, as well as counter-arguments to the reasoning used to justify such oppression.

Human Rights Training
ELSAM aims at becoming one of the prominent resource centers for human rights training and education for human rights defenders in Indonesia. For that reason, various human rights educations and trainings have been and will continue to be held, among others, Annual Human Rights Course, in cooperation with Equitas, Canada; Human Rights Course for Lawyers XII and its advance level (in process), in cooperation with IALDF Australia; and NGOs capacity building on parallel reporting under the ICESCR, in cooperation with RWI, Sweden. In addition, ELSAM has also become a consultant for Komnas HAM and Director-General of Human Rights Protection in compiling a human rights training module.

Publication
One of our prominent activities is publication. Up to date, more than 90 books have been published by ELSAM. Those books are, among others, research projects, translation books, examination on human rights courts, transitional justice series, criminal code reform series, fundamentalism series, Asasi bulletin (bimonthly), and Dignitas Journal (semester).

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