Human Rights Impact Assessment of oil palm development in two districts in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

A wide-ranging human rights impact assessment reveals systemic human rights abuses in the palm oil sector in ‘Jurisdictional Approach’ pilots in Indonesia. On-site field visits to eight communities show a widespread pattern of concessions being imposed without respecting communities’ rights, lands being taken without due compensation or consent, and workers not paid the minimum wage or being represented through trade unions. Communities which protest the abuses report harassment and intimidation and in some cases criminalization of complainants. In the great majority of cases, smallholdings, promised as compensation for the take-over of community lands, have not been provided.

Read the report here

The survey, carried out by Forest Peoples Programme, Yayasan Masyarakat Kehutanan Lestari, PROGRESS and led by the Safir Law Office, followed internationally accepted best practice guidance for human rights impact assessments. Eight villages, four in each district, were assessed through interviews, focus group discussions, gender sensitive questioning and surveys, accompanied by mapping of the overlaps between company concessions and community lands. Government officials were consulted and companies invited to participate.

The survey was carried out to help the two districts prepare for certification using the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) multi-stakeholder ‘Jurisdictional Approach’. This ‘approach’ encourages sub-national governments to work with businesses, small and medium growers, civil society organisations, workers and communities to apply the RSPO standard to all oil palm operations within their jurisdiction. The RSPO requires operators seeking certification to demonstrate that they respect communities’ and indigenous peoples’ land rights. It proscribes land grabbing (taking land without consent), requires adherence to laws protecting workers’ rights, and prohibits violations of the rights of human rights defenders, such as whistle-blowers, complainants and community spokespersons.

The study examined all the relevant national and local laws and found that the majority of the identified human rights violations were actually illegal under current laws. The report concludes with detailed recommendations, the most important and obvious of which are that existing laws should be enforced effectively, while new provisions are needed to protect customary lands. The local governments are actually already very aware of the prevalence of land conflicts and are actively developing new by-laws to identify and remedy disputes.