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Activists file last-gasp suit as Indonesia fails again to pass Indigenous bill

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JAKARTA — Civil society advocates representing more than 2,000 customary communities in Indonesia have initiated last-ditch legal challenges over parliament’s failure to pass an Indigenous rights bill during the 10-year administration of President Joko Widodo. “It is very important that there is the guarantee of legal certainty concerning the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples who are in a threatened position, and have even become victims of criminalization and land confiscation,” said attorney Fatiatulo Lazira. Fatiatulo was retained by the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the country’s largest advocacy group for Indigenous rights, in a March lawsuit targeting a breakthrough in the Indigenous peoples’ bill before the current administration leaves office in October. AMAN first presented a draft bill to parliament in 2012, and lent its support to Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, for his successful 2014 election campaign. In this year’s presidential election, on Feb. 14, a majority of Indonesian voters elected Prabowo Subianto to succeed Jokowi, who is reaching the end of his two-term limit. “President Jokowi has only one year remaining in his term, hopefully the Indigenous peoples’ bill will be passed into law,” Dorince Mehue, an AMAN campaigner for the Papua region, said in September last year. “That’s our hope.” The trial of AMAN and the Indigenous community’s lawsuit in March in Jakarta. Image courtesy of AMAN. At issue is a campaign dating back to the fall of strongman president Suharto in 1998 to enact legislation enshrining customary rights across the archipelago.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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