By: Landres Octav Pandega *)
The commemoration of World Human Rights Day, December 10, 2025, is a crucial moment to affirm that Indonesia has chosen a constructive and solution-oriented path that incorporates human rights as a guideline for state operations. This stance is clearly reflected in the National Human Rights Development Planning Conference (Musrenbang) initiative initiated by the Ministry of Human Rights. Minister of Human Rights Natalius Pigai positions human rights not merely as normative discourse but as a policy asset that must be integrated into all stages of development. This means that human rights are not limited to moral appeals but serve as a direction, measure, and instrument to ensure increasingly humane public services, from the central to the regional levels.
The Musrenbang HAM (Human Rights Development Planning Forum) is well-organized and results-oriented. Three commissions—mainstreaming; promotion and fulfillment; and protection and enforcement—will process input from various institutions and local governments. Prior to the commission sessions, participants received substantive reinforcement from Bappenas and the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure that recommendations regarding targets, indicators, and governance are truly aligned with national planning mechanisms. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Human Rights, Novita Ilmaris, emphasized that the desired output is not a ceremonial document, but rather recommendations and a follow-up plan (RTL) officially submitted to Bappenas and the Ministry of Home Affairs as a demonstration of the government’s commitment to mainstreaming human rights, not marginal notes.
At the international level, the government is also developing visionary measures. Deputy Minister of Human Rights Mugiyanto outlined the Asia Pacific Human Rights Ministerial Forum initiative as a concrete regional dialogue platform for mutual learning. Australia, through Special Envoy for International Human Rights Mark Dreyfus, expressed support for the Ministry of Human Rights’ initiatives, from the Asia Pacific Human Rights Ministerial Forum to Indonesia’s potential candidacy for Chair of the UN Human Rights Council. He assessed that Indonesia has ratified more human rights instruments than Australia, which does not yet have a national human rights law, and therefore encouraged the strengthening of the Indonesia-Australia Human Rights Dialogue as a channel for mutual learning. In line with this, the National Human Rights Musrenbang serves as a policy laboratory to ensure the integration of human rights mainstreaming, fulfillment, and protection and enforcement into the planning cycle at the national and regional levels. Australia’s support through the Special Envoy for International Human Rights provides positive encouragement, including a willingness to support Indonesia’s bid for Chair of the UN Human Rights Council and demonstrates the trust of foreign partners in Indonesia’s increasingly modern, open, and networked human rights policy direction. Human rights diplomacy provides an additional force for strengthening standards, cross-border cooperation, and the exchange of good practices.
The government is also strengthening the regulatory framework. The Ministry of Human Rights is preparing steps toward ratifying the OPCAT (Constitutional Treaty on Torture Prevention), as a commitment to preventing torture, while simultaneously revising Law No. 39/1999 on Human Rights to address current challenges. This regulatory update is crucial for closing loopholes, emphasizing the obligations of state institutions as duty bearers, and strengthening access to remedies for citizens. With more up-to-date regulations, the implementation of respect, protection, promotion, enforcement, and fulfillment of human rights can be more measured. The government emphasizes that norms must be embodied in services that are easily accessible, accountable, and citizen-friendly.
The community ecosystem is also nurtured through an educational approach. On campus, for example, Pamulang University’s student organizations have chosen to commemorate Human Rights Day through seminars, panel discussions, and workshops. The Coordinating Chair of Pamulang University’s student organizations, Ahmad Muajir, emphasized that this year’s World Human Rights Day commemoration on campus will be educational, with no street demonstrations to maintain academic stability and security. He stated that this decision was the result of internal consolidation by all elements of the student organization, with a series of activities from December 9–11, 2025, including thematic seminars, panel discussions, workshops, and reflection programs involving human rights figures, academics, and social organizations. Muajir believes this approach allows for a deeper understanding while fostering critical awareness among students, and his commitment to human rights issues remains strong. However, he believes that educational and dialogue methods are most relevant to the current campus situation.
The Ministry of Human Rights is also accelerating public literacy to ensure human rights values are ingrained as social habits. Educational programs, film screenings and reviews, and capacity building for civil servants are being implemented to ensure human rights principles are understood and practiced at the forefront of services, including community health centers, schools, village offices, and licensing units. The government believes that the success of human rights is measured not only by legal decisions, but also by citizens’ experiences in accessing their rights: easy, fast, equal, and humane.
Major tasks aren’t completed overnight. Diverse regional capacities, coordination challenges, and the need for more victim-friendly complaint mechanisms remain a shared challenge. However, the government has prepared a compelling path: indicator-based planning through the Human Rights Musrenbang (Development Planning Forum for Human Rights), progressive regulatory reform, constructive regional diplomacy, and continuous literacy development. This path ensures that the human rights agenda is not moment-dependent but rather anchored in a cycle of planning, budgeting, and evaluation, with measurable annual achievements.
This year’s commemoration of World Human Rights Day reflects an optimistic narrative in which the state is present, organizing, and improving. The government chooses to work through institutions, data, and roadmaps, collaborating with international partners, while fostering dialogue on campuses and in communities. Indonesia emphasizes that human rights are not merely declarations, but rather practices that are continually refined. Positive, collaborative, and results-oriented, so that human dignity truly becomes the center of Indonesia’s development.
*) observer of international issues
