Journal of SouthEast Asian Human Rights
The Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights (JSEAHR) explores human rights realities in South East Asian region from various perspectives. The JSEAHR is a peer-reviewed journal co-organized by the Indonesian Consortium for Human Rights Lecturers (SEPAHAM Indonesia) and the Centre for Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Migration (CHRM2) University of Jember. The Journal welcomes empirical, multi-disciplinary, and doctrinal approaches to explore historical and recent situation of human rights in South East Asia. The combination of editorial board members from South East Asia, Europe, and Japan creates a unique forum for South East Asian and other scholars to exchange ideas of interest about human rights issues in the region.
Articles
128 Documents
<![CDATA[Post-legislative Scrutiny (PLS) in the Process of Democratic Transition in Malaysia ]]>
<![CDATA[Khoo Ying Hooi]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.13591
<![CDATA[Malaysia’s 14th general election in 2018 saw the fall of the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime after ruling the country for more than six decades. Prior to the election, Malaysia faced challenges ranging from the absence of state legitimacy, fragile institutions to corruption scandals, leaving little room to have robust discourse on legislative reforms. Promise 16 of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) election manifesto prior to the election, pledges to restore the dignity of Parliament to institutionalize the select committee system in Parliament and the Senate to enable them to function effectively. Whilst there is limited post-legislative scrutiny (PLS) in Malaysia for now, the various reforms in the phase of democratic transition to the administration of PH is a positive sign of the possibility for Malaysia to move into better law-making procedures. This paper examines the work that is currently being undertaken in the Parliament of Malaysia to assess whether the current parliamentary reforms can pave the way for the PLS mechanism to be put in place.]]>
<![CDATA[The Implications of the NGO Law on the Right to Freedom of Association of Human Rights Defenders in Cambodia ]]>
<![CDATA[Boravin Tann]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.13397
<![CDATA[The right to freedom of association is of particular importance for human rights defenders. Freedom of association is an indispensable agent for human rights change that permits human rights defenders to maintain their civic space and pursue their mission in promoting and protecting rights and fundamental freedoms in a democratic society. In the current legal and political climate, human rights defenders face increasing challenges in the exercise of their freedom of association and other nexus rights vis-à-vis fulfilling their mission to advocate for other peoples’ rights. The Law on Associations and Non-Government Organizations, also known as LANGO, marks a significant turning point for the de jure and de facto exercise of the freedom of association, in particular for the most vocal and active human rights defenders and human rights organizations in Cambodia. This article first explores core elements, limitations and state obligations concerning the right to freedom of association provided by the international human rights treaties that Cambodia has ratified. It further examines key provisions of LANGO regarding the right to freedom of association of human rights defenders. It highlights that LANGO presents a critical challenge to the freedom of association due to its fundamental flaws, ambiguities and inconsistencies concerning its provisions on establishment, operation and suspension or dissolution of associations. This article concludes that LANGO offers extensive regulatory guidelines for all associations and NGOs in Cambodia; yet it also trigger concerns not due to the details, but the lack thereof which could undermine the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of association and other universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia as a whole.]]>
<![CDATA[Applying Post-Legislative Scrutiny to the Analysis of Legislation and SDGs in South and Southeast Asia ]]>
<![CDATA[Franklin de Vrieze]]>;
<![CDATA[Fotios Fitsilis]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.17611
<![CDATA[Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PLS) is an emerging oversight technique which is applied by parliaments to scrutinise implementation and impact of specific laws or legal frameworks. This article takes stock of PLS practices in countries in South and Southeast Asia and argues that PLS can also be used to scrutinise complex processes at the national or supra-national level, such as the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). First, a wide introduction and the state of play in PLS is provided, with reference to different parliamentary and development approaches emerging from the application of PLS in parliaments worldwide, followed by two specific case studies: the law on microfinance in Myanmar and the law on social practice reform in Nepal. The examination of these case studies offers insights about the application of scrutiny techniques in different parliaments. The outcome of the analysis is used to respond to the main research question of this contribution: whether PLS techniques can be applied for the oversight of extended processes, as is the case with the implementation of SDGs. For this, details of the first world study on parliamentary oversight of SDGs are presented, with a regional focus on South and Southeast Asia. The results seem to support the authors’ claim that PLS as a technique can facilitate oversight both of specific legal provisions and complex multi-stakeholder processes, such as the monitoring of SDGs.]]>
<![CDATA[The Legislators’ Engagement in Policy-making and Post-legislative Scrutiny in Nepal Since 1991 ]]>
<![CDATA[Sanjaya Mahato]]>;
<![CDATA[Rupesh Kumar Sah]]>;
<![CDATA[Pooja Chaudhary]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.17231
<![CDATA[Parliament enacts legislation and has a role to evaluate the implementation of legislation in meeting the intended outcomes. Post-legislative scrutiny (PLS) identifies defective legislation and rectifies it. As such, it contributes to better legislation and implementation of legislation objectives. However, this requires a strong commitment by the parliamentarians in the legislation process and policymaking. Along with a range of structural factors, including lack of expertise and experience and time constraints, the main reasons for the ineffective post-legislative review in Nepal stem from the Member of Parliaments’ (MPs) shallow engagement in policy-making and legislative review processes and stronger focus on expanding expenditure related to building roads, schools, and other vital infrastructure. For example, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) provided to MPs has been continuously increased in consecutive elections since 1991. MPs appear to prioritize the political benefits of engaging with their electorate on funding and development projects, over their role in reviewing or scrutinizing legislation. This paper argues that the shallow engagement of MPs in the policy-making process and ineffective post-legislative review has resulted in not only defective and unsustainable policies but also defective legislation. This has created problems in the rule of law and accountability. This paper largely draws from reviewing contributions of delegated legislation committee for rule of law, evaluates the implementation of the committee recommendations in improving legislation and analyse the effects of noncompliance of committees’ recommendations in people’s justice.]]>
<![CDATA[Norms from Above, Movements from Below ]]>
<![CDATA[Ferth Vandensteen Manaysay]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.15952
<![CDATA[This article seeks to analyse how conceptions of global climate change norms have contributed to the framing strategies and tactics of local indigenous people’s rights movements using the cases of Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA) from the Philippines and the Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) from Indonesia. Drawing on the combined theoretical frameworks of the world society approach and the social movement framing theory, this article argues that global climate change norms have provided indigenous people’s rights movements in Indonesia and the Philippines with new sources of vocabularies towards collective action. In theoretical and empirical terms, it contends that the exposure of the local indigenous social movements to global normative mechanisms have shifted local activism, as the world society approach envisages, while framing theory elucidates the manner in which movement-actors are able to interpret and transform the ideas they receive. A paired comparison, based on data collected from the CPA and AMAN’s public pronouncements as well as in-depth interviews with local indigenous movement leaders and members, shows material ideas and instruments that social movements receive from global institutional sources (such as the United Nations climate change agreements, global indigenous declarations, and international climate justice coalitions) have enabled them to produce novel frames for collective action at the local level. Contrastingly, it demonstrates how indigenous climate justice activists have also been able to frame their contentions against the prevailing global norms and ideas about climate change.]]>
<![CDATA[Myanmar: the country that ‘has it all’ ]]>
<![CDATA[Susan Banki]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.17922
<![CDATA[For scholars of Southeast Asia interested in human rights, Myanmar is a country that ‘has it all.’ I use this tongue-in-cheek expression to suggest the myriad ways that the country remains mired in structural challenges that inform its current human rights problems. In this paper, I point out the country’s most glaring structural challenges and link these to its most pressing human rights problems. A brief section about Myanmar in the context of COVID-19 offers the same conclusion as the rest of the article: while there is variance in the actors targeted and the degree of suppression, the underlying patterns of oppression remain unchanged over time.]]>
<![CDATA[The Paradox Between Universalism of Human Rights and Relativism of Culture ]]>
<![CDATA[Amit Kumar Singh]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 1 (2020): June 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i1.8597
<![CDATA[The rising tide of Honour killings against Hindu women and their justified murder in the name of culture by their parents/relatives, superficially reflects the tension between traditional and modern values in India. At a deeper level, cases of Honour killings represent the ongoing struggle between the universality of human rights and cultural relativism. Against this background, this article critically examines the role of universal human rights in relation to cultural relativism whilst assessing the values that claim to support honour killings in Indian culture. This article will examine the universalism of human rights and their influence on gender-based violence- especially relating to honour killings in North India. In addition, I will argue for an approach (drawing on the seminal work of Donnelly who proposed ‘relative universalism of human rights’) allowing the tension between universality and particularity/relativism can be reconciled.]]>
<![CDATA[Dynamics of Shrinking Religious Freedom in Post-Reformasi in Indonesia ]]>
<![CDATA[Hurriyah Hurriyah]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 4 No 2 (2020): December 2020 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v4i2.19546
<![CDATA[Much of the studies on religious freedom in Indonesia have established a striking disconnection between constitutional protections and the actual implementation of religious freedom, underlining the state’s failure as a protector of human rights. Yet, the emphasis on human rights has overlooked why the levels of governmental restrictions are substantially increased in democratized Indonesia, creating a trend of shrinking religious freedom. Using the perspective of civic space, this study analyses the dynamics of such a trend and the involvement of the state as a primary determinant. To demonstrate how and in what way the state engages in creating shrinking religious freedom, this study uses a combination of literature reviews and inspection on past measurements on the religious freedom situation in Indonesia. This study argues that rather than ideological factors, the dynamics of shrinking religious freedom is more related to the unrelenting endeavors from state-actors and agencies to control religion for the purpose of political motives and consideration due to the changing political landscape in a democratized Indonesia.]]>
<![CDATA[Straightening History ]]>
<![CDATA[Kar Yen Leong]]>
<![CDATA[ Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights Vol 5 No 1 (2021): June 2021 ]]>
Publisher : <![CDATA[Jember University Press ]]>
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DOI: 10.19184/jseahr.v5i1.17478
<![CDATA[In the aftermath of the attempted 1965 coup, many dissidents, leftists, and suspected Communists were either ‘eradicated’ or incarcerated in prisons all over Indonesia. Since their release, these political prisoners continue to face state-enforced discrimination and stigmatisation. The marginalization of ex-political prisoners by both the state and local communities has continued through Indonesia’s democratic transition following President Suharto’s downfall in 1998. This is compounded by the presence of right-wing groups who continue to harass them, labelling them as neo-Communists inimical to the Indonesian body politic. Through direct engagement with former political prisoners, I aim to understand rehabilitative efforts through support groups. In preliminary interviews, many eks-tapol refer to the need to ‘straighten’ history. This discourse highlights their need to be recognized as ‘whole’ citizens of Indonesia. I explore the state’s struggle to address this dark chapter in Indonesian history, what it means to ‘straighten’ history and how eks-tapol engage with support groups to re-define their position within the community, denoting a strengthened sense of dignity and humanity. It is hoped that this research will contribute to efforts to understand and protect the rights of eks-tapol and other victims of political persecution in Southeast Asia.]]>
