HuMa was established to promote a strong social movement supporting the renewal of legal systems and practices that are fair to communities and the environment, while respecting human values and socio-cultural diversity. Legal reform is one of its key principles.
Problem Analysis
The goal of legal reform in Indonesia must be connected to the objectives of the nation. These objectives form the foundation of Indonesia’s legal aspirations. The fourth paragraph of the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution outlines four national goals: to protect the people of Indonesia, to promote general welfare, to educate the nation’s life, and to participate in establishing a world order based on freedom, lasting peace, and social justice.
In practice, legislation, the judiciary, and law enforcement tend to protect the interests of major capital holders, neglecting environmental preservation, cultural diversity, and allowing social intolerance. They do not favor the poor or minority groups, lack participatory formation, and are often corrupt and weak in enforcement.
Currently, there is a significant gap between normative provisions and realities on the ground. TAP MPR No. IX/MPR/2001 emphasizes that there has been a considerable inequality in public access to control over natural and agrarian resources. Control of natural resources by the state through its institutions is strengthened by formal legal regulations, which serve as a basis for legitimizing land seizures, evictions, and criminalization—ultimately distancing the state from its foundational ideals.
Various sectoral permits issued by the state have only provided temporary remedies to social issues concerning inequality in community access to natural resources. In this context, the law functions to facilitate capital expansion, which ultimately broadens the structure of land ownership inequality.
HuMa’s Stance
The legal reform supported by HuMa includes: 1.) Addressing the empirical issues faced by the most marginalized groups in social, political, and economic processes and those oppressed by cultural power at the local level; 2.) Positioning marginalized indigenous and local communities as active agents of legal reform at the local level; 3.) Not responding to agendas introduced by external forces outside the interests of the community; aimed at enhancing human dignity through respect for human rights; 4.) Based on critical legal studies, capable of breaking through dogmatic and theoretical stagnation to address the empirical issues faced by the communities being supported; 5.) Promoting legal pluralism as a means of respecting cultural diversity as an inherent part of upholding human rights; and 6.) Encouraging democratization through various state instruments, including the interpretation and application of Indonesia’s constitutional ideals as expressed in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution.
