This year Indonesia is hosting the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/Civil Society Forum (ACSC/APF). This conference also supports efforts to restore democracy and equality in Southeast Asia. As a continent that is home to around two-thirds of the world's indigenous peoples, only a few countries in Southeast Asia recognize the existence of indigenous peoples, and even the identities of indigenous peoples are not yet fully taken into account as part of society.
Since 2010, the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) has been monitoring the human rights situation and human rights violations against indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples in Asian countries are the main targets and victims of human rights violations for militarization, conservation and tourism projects. The rights violations that often occur are the right to self-determination; ownership of land, territory and resources; as well as rights in the economic, social and cultural fields.
In fact, indigenous communities are known for their consistency in practicing traditional knowledge and proving their resilience in supporting sustainable nature management models. However, these practices have not been fully recognized and are even threatened by practices that have the potential to harm indigenous communities.
One example is the lives of indigenous communities which are threatened due to land confiscation. This paralyzes their right to continue traditions, including agricultural activities. As a consequence, local wisdom is lost and food supplies are increasingly reduced. The particular impact is that indigenous women are unable to maintain family food security.
Seeing this situation, KEMITRAAN collaborated with the Samdhana Institute and AIPP to organize a workshop in a series of Asean People's Forum activities with the theme Human Rights Advocacy for Indigenous Peoples in Southeast Asia.
This workshop discusses and strengthens capacity in understanding the rights of free, prior, informed and consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples, including good practices and challenges in advocating for indigenous peoples, especially indigenous women, to be able to participate in decision-making processes in the community.
The resource persons in this workshop were representatives of countries in Southeast Asia, such as Frederick Wilson from AIPP, Jimmy Ginting from PPMAN, Saw Frankie from ABIPA Burma, Rachel Mariano from CPP Philippines, and Stenich Tes from Cambodia.
On this occasion, Jimmy Ginting explained the condition of indigenous people's problems in a number of regions in Indonesia, one of which is the Tobelo community in North Maluku. Until now, they still face criminalization by the authorities. Jimmy said that the existence of legal policies for indigenous peoples was an important point for recognition from the government.
"To fulfill the basic rights of indigenous peoples, one of the ways is by looking at fundamental issues further and making efforts to promote and ensure recognition of their existence," said Frederick.
The discussion took place interactively with the participants present. Participants also asked questions about the role of fellow women, young people, including other stakeholders in looking at the problems explained by a number of speakers. At the end of the session, Martua Sirait from the Samdhana Institute in her closing statement said that it is necessary to strengthen the power of civil society in supporting existing problems and ways to promote the rights of indigenous peoples.
