Human Rights

Connecting Papua’s Central Highlands

A conference in Banda Aceh reveals divergent opinions about what model of Islamic law Aceh should adopt

Unionists express their disgust at local government’s failure to look after the interests of workers

Displaced East Timorese children go hungry in Indonesian West Timor

But her husband won’t come to the party.

The rise, fall, and re-branding of a celebrity preacher

Women are challenging the stereotypes that have long defined Indonesian unionists.

About cooking, studying Java, and other serious pleasures

Intellectual, Chinese, atheist, gay - and wholly Indonesian

Inspired by television and Muchtar Pakpahan, a traditional fisherman decides it’s time to act.

Officially, 2.4 million Indonesian children work in factories or on the streets, instead of being at school. Unofficially, the number could be 10 million. SHARON BESSELL talks with some working children, and asks what is being done.

Making idealism work is very hard. NORI ANDRIYANI, with extraordinary honesty, tells why.

'Human Rights' is no longer a dirty word within Jakarta's establishment. An official National Human Rights Commission, now in its third year, is overwhelmed with work. KRISHNA SEN caught up with Marzuki Darusman, its deputy chairman. Joining in was academic Arief Budiman. She asked them what 'human rights' actually mean in Indonesia, and what difference the Commission has made.

While top officials hail the Australia-Indonesia security agreement, ARTHUR KING is appalled to find that, on the ground in East Timor, youths who resist still face torture.

Modern gay men in Indonesia learn to live alongside traditional concepts of homosexuality. DEDE OETOMO explains.

Should child labour be abolished or regulated? WENDY MILLER spoke with activist ARIST MERDEKA SIRAIT during the Child Labour Conference at Melbourne's Monash University.

There is concern within the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri) about human rights abuses committed by its members. Part of the evidence is a manual on human rights recently issued by Maj-Gen Dunidja D., Military Area Commander in Irian Jaya. All soldiers in Irian Jaya are required to carry it as part of their personal equipment.

Authorities blame the recent Jakarta riots on the coalition PRD. It has hundreds of members, but military leaders liken it to the PKI of the 1960s, which had millions. Who are these 1990s activists? VANNESSA HEARMAN visited with one of the coalition partners earlier this year, and filed this inside story.

Australian volunteer LEON JONES was living in Aceh in the lead-up to the violence that eventualy left up to 2000 dead.