Tjahjo Kumolo (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

In an effort to raise awareness among civil servants of the significance of human rights, the Home Ministry will work closely with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to educate government officials throughout the country about upholding the rights of the people they serve.

According to Komnas HAM, civil servants were among the three most reported groups for violations of human rights over the last five years, along with the police and corporations.

'€œKnowing that civil servants are in third place in the chart of human rights violators is very shocking. We want to stop this. We want our officials to be more aware of human rights,'€ Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said on Monday, when his office officially sealed a five-year partnership with Komnas HAM on the issue.

'€œProspective civil servants studying at the Institute of Public Administration [IPDN] in particular must be fully aware of human rights values in order to serve the people. I will discuss this further with the head of the school,'€ Tjahjo added.

According to Komnas HAM'€™s data, last year saw the highest number of complaints with 7,000 cases reported to the national rights body; 20 percent of which related to land disputes, which involved the police and corporations.

Komnas HAM deputy chief Roichatul Aswidah said that regional governments also participated in abuses regarding land disputes due to the questionable land permits they issued.

'€œWe are still comprehensively studying whether the three actors: the police, corporations and local governments are directly connected regarding this particular issue as we see a tendency reflecting toward that,'€ Roichatul said.

She cited the police'€™s involvement in forcibly evicting people following land clearance orders issued by government officials.

Besides agrarian conflicts, complaints over abuse by civil servants also include discrimination against minority groups, including forced closure of places of worship; threats and physical violence against followers of minority faiths; and obstruction of worship.

In addition to local heads, a year-end report by Komnas HAM last year cited officials from the Religious Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry as well as members of law-enforcement agencies, including members of the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the National Police who were all responsible for all kinds of religious discrimination against minority groups nationwide.

The report specifically blamed those state actors in the prolonged discrimination against the Ahmadiyah community in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara; the Sampang Shiites in East Java; and parishioners of the Bogor-based Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) Yasmin and the Bekasi-based Congregation of Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP) Filadelfia in West Java.

Besides reviewing problematic regulations that justify discrimination against such religious communities, as well as those that encourage abuses in other walks of life, the partnership between the Home Ministry and Komnas HAM is expected to push resolutions to end ongoing discrimination.

Pro-human rights civil servants are also expected to further advocate the rights of other vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

'€œThe partnership will allow Komnas HAM and the Home Ministry to carry out operations needed to reduce conflicts causing inequality imposed by state actors,'€ Komnas HAM chief Nur Kholis said.

'€œWe want a strong state that protects its people, not harms them,'€ he added.

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