A coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Indonesia led by AMAN (Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago) have presented a joint submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to consider in advance of its 75th session

Indonesia’s climate and disaster mitigation measures are also criticized for contributing to indigenous rights violations, notably in renewable energy projects. Furthermore, the State’s ongoing and planned climate initiatives, such as biomass co-firing and carbon crediting, threaten land, livelihoods, and indigenous rights in addition to possibly promising false climate solutions.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has persistently failed to clarify the status of the draft law on Masyarakat Hukum Adat (MHA) and provide information on measures taken to ensure protections for indigenous peoples’ rights, even though the State’s legal framework systematically discriminates against indigenous peoples. At present, indigenous communities can only seek legal recognition of their communal land rights if their existence is first affirmed in a local government legal instrument. This determination is dependent on the discretion of the local government, violating indigenous peoples’ right to self-identification, a core right of indigenous peoples.

The State’s failure to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ land and participation rights also affects indigenous women in oftentimes disproportionate ways, as they face differentiated and overlooked impacts when they lose access to their traditional lands and resources.

The coalition notes that this failure to adequately recognize indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights, and its preferencing of business interests over indigenous peoples’ rights, further undermines indigenous peoples’ ability to engage in traditional land-based livelihood activities, as illustrated by the situation of the Ompu Ronggur.

The submission points out that although the State's policies on agrarian reform and social forestry can in some cases provide communities with increased tenure security, they rarely provide full recognition of an indigenous community’s land rights and may in fact cause internal divisions within the community or result in the community unknowingly ceding their ability to claim full ownership of their traditional lands. 

The coalition hopes that the Committee will scrutinize Indonesia's compliance with its international obligations and issue strong recommendations to the State to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights of indigenous peoples.

Read the full submission here or download it below