One of the signs of the successful promotion of human rights is that human rights are invoked by many different groups, including intolerant religious-based groups. Their rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression are indeed protected by international human rights law, guaranteed in national laws and by the 1945 Constitution. Another sign of success, unfortunately, is that many people start to take human rights for granted. This is worrying because sometimes this mind-set is used by privileged groups that only want to maintain their privileged position. Worse, sometimes our short memories mean we forget that efforts to fight for human rights have be synonymous with the struggle to defend minorities, those who are unprivileged and incapable of defending themselves. What is privilege anyway? We are privileged when we have special rights, advantages, or immunity as an ...

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.