TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsBreaking the silence: Deaf lawyers make judicial history in Indonesia
After years of rejection, isolation and systemic barriers, two advocates have broken a historic barrier in the judicial system, proving that deafness is no obstacle to serving justice.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Breaking barriers: Lawyers Andi Kasri Unru (left) and Muhammad Andika Panji pose on June 24, 2025, after taking their oath as lawyers at the Jakarta High Court in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta. The two trailblazers have been recognized by the Museum of Indonesian World Records (MURI) as the first deaf lawyers in the country. ( Andi Kasri Unru/-)
T
he Museum of Indonesian World Records (MURI) has recognized Andi Kasri “Akas” Unru, 31, and Muhammad Andika Panji, 33, as the first deaf lawyers to join the country’s judiciary after they swore their oath in June alongside their peers at the Jakarta High Court in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, dressed in black robes, white jabots and black peci (skullcaps).
“There are many issues we must advocate for because many deaf people face the law, whether as victims, perpetrators or witnesses. Yet legal assistance for them remains inadequate,” Panji told The Jakarta Post in late September, with the assistance of sign language interpreter Fajrus.
“As lawyers, our hope is to reduce the stigma against deaf people and [show] that we are capable of defending our own rights,” Andi added.
A door opens
Andi and Panji enrolled in the law school at Jakarta’s Esa Unggul University in 2017 after they received scholarships from Deaf Legal Advocacy Worldwide (D-LAW), an organization of deaf lawyers based in Maryland, the United States.
Their opportunity came just a year after the passage of the 2016 Law on Persons with Disabilities and six years after Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
