Despite being widely recognized as a tolerant country, many ideals of Indonesia’s core identity, including religious freedom, are increasingly under threat. Religious minority groups such as Christians, Ahmadis, and Shiites have faced intimidation and discrimination.
In September 2017, we launched the initiative Solidifying Religious Freedom in Indonesia. The overall objective of this project is to strengthen religious freedom by reinstating the values and norms of pluralism within state institutions, youth, and local communities in Indonesia.
To achieve this overarching goal, we worked toward two specific objectives. The first is to improve the national and local government’s role in ensuring that religious minorities are protected. The second is to enhance the roles of key actors—religious leaders, artists, and media—in actively promoting religious tolerance.
We implemented the project in the cities of the Greater Jakarta Area (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, and Bekasi), as well as in Yogyakarta, Kupang, and Bandung. These are places where religious intolerance is prevalent and local bylaws restrict religious freedoms. The project targeted state actors at the national and sub-national level, religious leaders, including women clerics, the existing interfaith dialogues forums, civil society organizations, youth, minorities, and faith-based communities.
HIGHLIGHTS
Journalism & Diversity Workshop
In May 2018, we hosted a two-day workshop with 22 journalists from top Indonesian news outlets, called “Journalism and Diversity Issues”. The objective of the workshop was to help the media promote a tolerant and diverse society. The workshop took place in May 2018 in Bogor, West Java, and was led in collaboration with Serikat Jurnalis untuk Keberagaman (SeJuK). Facilitators included academics, peacebuilding practitioners, and media professionals.
Art Residency and festival
In collaboration with Spektakel ID, we organized “Art Residency: Solidifying Religious Freedom in Indonesia”, a program for young Indonesians supporting peace, freedom, and religious tolerance through art projects around the theme “Ramai Tapi Damai” (Peace Out Loud). We chose seven artists to receive seed grants and brought them together at a 3-day workshop that marked the official commencement of the residency.
This initiative culminated in a public exhibit at the National Museum in Jakarta in February 2019, held in collaboration with Serrum Studio and Spektakel. This festival provided all seven artists under the Art Residency program the opportunity to showcase their artwork to the public. It also brought together several local civil society groups, influencers, musicians, a stand-up comedian, and cultural organizations for performances and discussions on the importance of promoting peace and tolerance through art.
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Interfaith Dialogues
In collaboration with Aliansi Nasional Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, we held 29 interfaith and intrafaith dialogues in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Bandung and Yogyakarta, attended by more than 1,300 people. These dialogues involved high school students, university students, minority religious groups (including Baha’i and indigenous religions), and faith leaders.
The dialogues tackled the religious rights of Indonesian citizens, preventing and countering violence against freedom of religion, and building support for religious freedom.
Media Content Analysis
We conducted a media content analysis to better understand the state of religious freedom in Indonesia. The study discovered that religious freedom and tolerance in Indonesia remain a cause for concern, although freedom of religion did improve in 2017. The study also found that, in most cases, mainstream media in Indonesia support freedom of religion and interfaith tolerance.
Legal Framework Analysis
With this study, we assessed the legal framework regulating freedom of religion in Indonesia, with the aim to provide a regulatory and policy analysis along with a mapping of all relevant state and non-state actors working on religious rights in the country. The study found that there are gaps in the regulations that protect freedom of religion and belief. It also found that state actors understand their mandates to protect human rights; however, there are challenges related to the different approaches that various agencies adopt in resolving conflicts related to religious freedom.
Workshop for Religious Leaders
Religious leaders have an important role in supporting inter-religious harmony and tolerance. We held four workshops in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, and Yogyakarta, in which 147 religious and civil society leaders discussed how they can promote diversity and tolerance in their communities. In these workshops, we shared our insights on human rights protection, conflict management, religious freedom, and effective advocacy.
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National Policy Discussion
In collaboration with ANBTI, we held 3 national policy discussions focused on improving advocacy, practices, and regulations around religious freedom, particularly for indigenous communities whose religions were subjected to systematic oppression.
The national policy discussions involved a total of 95 experts and stakeholders from the government, civil society organizations, and representatives of indigenous religious communities. The discussions focused on the problems faced by the indigenous belief communities throughout Indonesia, highlighting their first-hand experience of discrimination as well as the impact of decisions made by the Constitutional Court.
Public Consultations
We collaborated with ANBTI to hold 3 public consultations. These events, held in Yogyakarta and Bogor, centered on the role of youth to counter religious intolerance on social media, improving the government’s role in maintaining peace and tolerance, and strengthening relationships between government, NGOs, religious communities, and the media. The consultations also focused on the design and development of the Standard Operating Procedure for reporting violations of religious freedom, particularly for indigenous religions.