Seeking Development Justice Agenda in G20 Summit

Seeking Development Justice Agenda in G20 Summit

 

The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) currently monitoring the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The meeting that discussed about nine pillars of economic development related with infrastructures, investments, human resources development, finance, food resilience, and governance become important because its already become the basis to determine the path of state policy. Moreover, President Joko Widodo was announced will become the primary spoke person in several sessions, such as terrorism and economic issue, including the issue of sustainability, resilience, and responsibility.

The G20 Summit become the important moment to also represent the business and development issues, human rights and justice into the higher level to encourage each state leaders to committed into the human rights issues. Within the situation of business and human rights issues in Indonesia, the obstacles occurred from the legal immune of the corporates that obviously violated the regulations, depriving the environment, even more the community. The threat of the right of clean water loss and occupations in Rembang, Central Java province as the impact of cement factory development, the environmental damages because of mining in small islands, and the series of investment activities that deprived could become the consideration by the President in encouraging cooperation to create extractive industrial investments with the developed countries.

Since the last several years, KontraS recognized that the highest conflict occurred in the sector of natural resources authorization. Started from the investments and ended up in criminalization. Those whose been defending their rights from the project of natural resources exploitations frequently being marked as “development enemy” and several human rights violations already accomplished in the name of “state development”. The death of Indra Pelani and criminalization that still on going suffered by several activists that rejecting the Tanjung Benoa reclamation project in Bali province is one of the case on how the investment that proceeded and conducted in Indonesia instead really close with the legal violation practices. Various cases related with the conflict of natural resources showing the character of government oriented, whether within the central or local level, that only as a commodity to seek profit without thinking the public and environment salvations.

The threat that still in going if we could see from the existed data (from 2015) stated that there are more than 1.898 mining permits that issued by the government. The data is the atrocious portrait that showing the dreadful state management in implementing investments. The major impact from the investment that neglecting the human rights principles is the closed system that occurred in particular areas, such as the aspects of health, education until the social-cultural of indigenous people.

In regards with developing the cooperation and encouraging the investment flows with the state that included in G20, the state leaders that present, in this matter President Joko Widodo should as well developing the protection of human rights. KontraS recognized the agenda of investments that being proceeds up until now are showing the absence of the state in the issue of business and human rights. We are concern if the respect of human rights do not reflected eligibly in the framework or the implementation, then the human rights violations against the environment and indigenous people lands within the village or outer-small islands will be increased.

Upon the situation, KontraS hopes that President Joko Widodo could as well emphasized the importance of human rights perspective in every cooperation of any kind of investments. This could begin with emphasizing the importance to operationalized the Ruggie Principles or as known as principles of business and human rights. These principles could measure the eligibility of human rights to identified, prevent, or handling and responsible to every negative impacts against human rights that might be occurred in the corporate activities, or that possibly related with the operations, products or the service by the business relations.

The momentum of G20 Summit is the perfect time to discuss about the business and human rights amongst the state leaders, despite that we may know that the topic of terrorism and refugee still become the global topic that dominated the global public discourse these days. Nonetheless, presenting the human rights and justice agenda also could become the gate of good willingness by the state authorities as the commitment to develop without neglecting human rights.

 

 

Jakarta, July 8, 2017

 

Yati Andriyani, S.HI.

Executive Coordinator

 

KontraS Publication. The source can be accessed at: http://kontras.org/home/index.php?module=data&id=129