Law on Racial, Ethnic Discrimination Abolishment Forgotten

Many Indonesians seem to have forgotten the existence of Law No. 40/2008 on the abolishment of racial and ethnic discrimination, despite the various unresolved problems related to such matters that should be urgently addressed.

KOMPAS/WISNU WIDIANTORO

Chairperson of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) Asfinawati (left), National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) commissioner M. Choirul Anam (second left) and academic M Ali Safaat speak at a press conference on the launch of the draft of standards to abolish racial and ethnic discriminations at the Komnas HAM office in Jakarta, on Tuesday, July. 17. The draft of the standards is expected to serve as a guide for the implementation of norms related to preventing racial and ethnic discrimination, especially in the presidential and general elections in 2019.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Today marks the 10^th anniversary of the issuance of Law No. 40/2008 on the abolishment of racial and ethnic discrimination. However, the law seems to have been forgotten amid the increasing concerns that racial and ethnic issues are being abused for certain goals, such as political gains in the 2019 general election.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which the law’s Article 8 stipulates as the overseer of all efforts to abolish racial and ethnic discriminations (PDRE), has yet to carry out its duties optimally. “We have poor tools to detect PDRE efforts,” Komnas HAM commissioner Choirul Anam said in his office in Jakarta on Friday (9/11/2018).