International Human Rights Day: The Evolution of Human Rights Activism in Indonesia

This year marks 80 years since Indonesian independence. So the ANU Indonesia Institute’s annual Human Rights Day panel will bring together experts with deep knowledge of the historical evolutions of human rights activism and protections, from independence to the present day.

Speakers

Sidney Jones is currently an adjunct associate professor in the international relations department at New York University. She is the founder, first director and until 2025 senior adviser of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta-based NGO. From 2002 to 2013 she was based in Jakarta with the International Crisis Group, first as Southeast Asia director, then as senior adviser to the Asia program. She has written extensively on conflict and violent extremism in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and the southern Philippines. She previously held positions with the Ford Foundation in Jakarta and New York (1977-84); was the researcher for Amnesty International on Indonesia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (1985-1988) and served as the Asia director of Human Rights Watch (1989-2002). She also served as chief of the Human Rights Unit of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor in 1999-2000. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Oriental Studies and International Relations with a focus on the Middle East and studied for a year at Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran in 1971-72. She has been a visiting fellow at Australian National University (1995) and UC-Berkeley (2012) and served as the George Soros Visiting Practitioner at Central European University in Budapest from January through March 2017. In 2006 Ms. Jones received an honorary doctorate from the New School in New York.

Dédé Oetomo is an activist, independent scholar, and educator in research, education and advocacy in the fields of language and society, the Chinese diaspora, diversity in gender-sexuality, and HIV & AIDS, mainly as Founder and Trustee at GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation (www.gayanusantara.or.id), which also hosts the Coalition for Sexual & Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR; www.csbronline.org). He also serves on the Board of Indonesia AIDS Coalition and Naz Foundation International. Academically he is an adjunct lecturer at Universitas Surabaya, Universitas Katolik Widya Mandala Surabaya, Universitas Airlangga and Universitas Ciputra Surabaya.

Usman Hamid is the Director of Amnesty International Indonesia. He was a student activist in 1998 and is co-founder of Change.org Indonesia and founder of Public Virtue Jakarta. He completed a law degree at Trisakti University, Jakarta, and an MPhil at the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University.

Gregory Fealy is an Emeritus Professor at ANU and specialises in Southeast Asian, Indonesian and Malaysian politics and history, particularly Islamic politics. Most of his research has focused on Islamic movements and parties as well as cultural and radical movements in Indonesia, and he has a close interest in Malaysian developments. He has a PhD in History from Monash University and retired from ANU in late 2021 after 22 years of service.

Moderator

Dyah Ayu Kartika commenced her PhD studies in the Department of Political and Social Change, ANU Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific Affairs, in February 2023. She worked as a researcher for the Center for the Study of Religion and Democracy-PUSAD Paramadina (2018-2020) and the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict-IPAC (2020-2023). She also took part as a fellow for New Mandala, an academic blog hosted by the Australian National University, to provide analysis on gender issues during Indonesia’s 2019 election. She completed previous degrees from the University of Indonesia (Bachelor of Psychology, cumlaude) and the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University (MA in Development Studies).

This is an online only seminar.

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