Indonesia’s Legal Policies Amid Covid-19
Balancing Religious Freedom and Public Health
Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced States to promulgate various legal policies to restrain public activities, including limiting or prohibiting people to exercise their right to religious freedom or beliefs (FoRB) in the public sphere and imposing repressive sanctions. International Human Rights Law (IHRL) regulates the standard limitation of FoRB, but the Government of Indonesia struggled to balance respecting FoRB and protecting public health, especially in the emergency of Covid-19. While the Government is oriented to protect public health, new violations of FORB add more backlog on unresolved cases. Through a Human Rights-Based Approach and case studies, three essential principles of FoRB, namely the principle of non-discrimination, the principle of proportional restriction, and the principle of non-coercion in religion, will be analyzed qualitatively to assess, first, the extent to which legal policies in Indonesia amid Covid-19 are compatible with IHRL. Second, the extent to which these legal policies impact the right to religious freedom of the people. Third, to ask the question: how should the legal policies in the Covid-19 era be formulated so that the State can balance the protection of public health and religious freedom?
Keywords: Covid-19, the right to freedom of religion or belief, the right to public health, derogation, limitation.
References
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Androutsopoulos, G., The Right of Religious Freedom in Light of the Coronavirus Pandemic: The Greek Case, (2021) 10-1 Laws | An Open Access Journal from MDPI, CanLIIDocs 487,
Bielefeldt, H., Limiting Permissible Limitations: How to Preserve the Substance of Religious Freedom, Religion & Human Rights, (2020) 15(1-2), 3-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18710328-BJA10001
Durham, W.C., Freedom of Religion or Belief: Laws Affecting the Structuring of Religious Communities. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Review Conference, September (1999) ODIHR Background Paper 1999/4. p.8. Available at https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3e283bd01.pdf
Durham, W.C., Lindholm, T.S., Tahzib-Lie, B. and Norway, N.A., Facilitating freedom of religion or belief: A deskbook. (Springer, 2013).
Jayawickrama, N., The judicial application of human rights law: national, regional and international jurisprudence. (Cambridge university press, 2002).
Lindsey and Helen Pausacker, eds., Reproduced from Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005).
Mietzner M., Populist Anti-Scientism, Religious Polarization, and Institutionalized Corruption: How Indonesia’s Democratic Decline Shaped Its COVID-19 Response. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. (2020) 39(2):227-249. doi:10.1177/1868103420935561
Scharffs, Brett G., Coronavirus and Religious Freedom: A Preliminary View from The United States. Revista General de Derecho Canónico y Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado 54 (2020). Available at https://www.iclrs.org/app/uploads/2020/11/Scharffs_USA_coronovirus.pdf
Selanno, S., Rorong, K., & Heydemans, N., One Earth, Many Homes: The Impact and Strategies of The Church Responding to Covid-19. MAGENANG: Journal of Christian Theology and Education,(2021) 1 (2), 1-12. Retrieved from http://ejournal-iakn-manado.ac.id/index.php/magenang/article/view/447
Syarif, Mujar Ibnu, Spirit Piagam Jakarta Dalam Undang-Undang Dasar 1945. Jurnal Cita Hukum, Fakultas Syariah dan Hukum UIN Jakarta (2016) Vol.4 No.1, pp.15-32, DOI:10.15408/jch.v4i1.3568.2016.4.1.15-32
Tobroni, Pembatasan Kegiatan Keagamaan Dalam Penanganan Covid-19. Jurnal Komunikasi Hukum (JKH), (2020) Vol.6 (2) Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha.
News and other sources
CNN Indonesia, “Deret Vaksinasi di Daerah Berujung Kerumunan Peserta" (2021) online: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20210715075114-20-667895/deret-vaksinasi-di-daerah-berujung-kerumunan-peserta.
CNN Indonesia, (2021) online: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20210903203344-12-689559/komnas-ham-soal-ahmadiyah-aparat-pemkab-sintang-tak-tegas
CNN Indonesia, Pro-Kontra Peniadaan Aktivitas Di Rumah Ibadah. (2021) online: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/tv/20210709212653-407-665736/video-pro-kontra-peniadaan-aktivitas-di-rumah-ibadah
Gatra.com. “Haedar Nashir Singgung Penghapusan 7 Kata di Piagam Jakarta.” (2021) online: https://www.gatra.com/detail/news/438079/politik/haedar-nashir-singgung-penghapusan-7-kata-di-piagam-jakarta
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (2021) online: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx
Kompas, (2021) online: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2017/04/26/07193141/perda.diskriminatif.dan.buruknya.pemenuhan.hak.atas.kebebasan.beragama?page=all.
Kompas, “Penutupan Tempat Ibadah Di Kota Serang MUI Demi Keselamatan Bangsa” (2021), online: https://regional.kompas.com/read/2021/07/03/091330478/penutupan-tempat-ibadah-di-kota-serang-mui-demi-keselamatan-bangsa;
PGI., (2021), online: https://pgi.or.id/laporan-setara-institute-terkait-pelanggaran-kbb-di-tahun-2020/
Republica, “Pemprov Sumbar Izinkan Pelaksanaan Sholat Idul Adha.” (2021) online: https://www.republika.co.id/berita/qw4gxq430/pemprov-sumbar-izinkan-pelaksanaan-sholat-idul-adha
Scottish Human Rights. “The Panel Principles in applying Human Rights Based Approach.” (2021) online: https://careaboutrights.scottishhumanrights.com/whatisahumanrightsbasedapproach.html
Subadi, Tjipto. “Pro Kontra Penutupan Masjid.” (Juli 10th, 2021) online: https://www.suaramerdeka.com/opini/pr-04429357/pro-kontra-penutupan-masjid?page=all.
Tempo, (2021) online: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1502185/mahfud-md-minta-polisi-segera-usut-kasus-perusakan-masjid-ahmadiyah-di-sintang. \
The Setara Institute, “Pandemi Lahan Subur Diskriminasi dan Intoleransi.” online: https://setara-institute.org/pandemi-lahan-subur-diskriminasi-dan-intoleransi/
Tirto, (2021) online: https://tirto.id/masjid-ahmadiyah-sintang-dirusak-mahfud-semua-ikut-aturan-hukum-gjc5;
Tirto, “Kasus Intoleransi Terus Bersemi Saat Pandemi” (2021) online: https://tirto.id/kasus-intoleransi-terus-bersemi-saat-pandemi-f5Jb
UNHROHC, “Guidance Covid-19” Covid-19 Response. United Nation Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. Para 2. Emergency Measures. Page 1. (May 13th, 2020) online: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Events/COVID-19_Guidance.pdf
United Nation Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. International standards on freedom of religion or belief. Para 21. (2021) online: https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/freedomreligion/pages/standards.aspx
UNSDG. Human Rights Based Approach. (2021) online: https://unsdg.un.org/2030-agenda/universal-values/human-rights-based-approach
USCIRF. Annual Report with Recommendations for U.S. Policy. (2021) online: https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/2021%20Annual%20Report.pdf
Published
2022-12-31
How to Cite
PRATIWI, Cekli Setya.
Indonesia’s Legal Policies Amid Covid-19.
Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights, [S.l.], v. 6, n. 2, p. 182-203, dec. 2022.
ISSN 2599-2147.
Available at: <https://jurnal.unej.ac.id/index.php/JSEAHR/article/view/27799>. Date accessed: 19 apr. 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.19184/jseahr.v6i2.27799.
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
