Bulletin n. 1/2012
June 2012
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Alexandra Lina
    Indonesia and the Responsibility to Protect
    in Pacific Review (The) , Volume 25, Issue 1 ,  2012 ,  51-74
    While governments in Southeast Asia, together with other countries in the world, have shown their unanimous support toward the RtoP, the implementation of such principle needs more than just states' commitment. Since state actor, in many cases, is the perpetrator of crimes included in RtoP, the role of civil society is indeed crucial to put pressure toward the government to fulfill its responsibility to protect its populations. This article aims to describe Indonesia's position so far in responding to this RtoP principle. It tries not to cover only the government's position, but instead to also delineate the civil society's standpoint, which is an important element particularly, to provide a more comprehensive overview. As based on the latest elaboration of RtoP within the UN Outcome Document (2005) into three strategic pillars, it is interesting to observe whether both sides, the government and civil society are comfortable to recognise all pillars altogether or rather incline to take one or two pillars only. Nevertheless, robust development of civil society in Indonesia, as one of positive implications from process toward democracy has opened ample opportunities for the application of RtoP principle. Local NGOs that particularly focus on human rights issue have demonstrated the ability to put pressure on the government to exercise its responsibility as reflected in te first and second pillars. Since the government has stressed upon the importance of prevention to implement RtoP principle, the involvement of civil society is a must, particularly to carry out the role of early-warning to prevent the outbreak of mass atrocities that fall within the scope of RtoP, which can become another worthy discussion to elaborate. Finally, RtoP is all about implementation. Genuine political will from the government would be needed while partnership with the civil society element is nothing but important.
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