Human rights in Indonesia are defined by the 1945 Constitution (UUD 1945) and the laws under it; several rights are guaranteed especially as a result of the constitutional amendments following the Reform era. As of 2024, the Ministry of Human Rights, under the Coordinating Ministry for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Correction, deals with human rights issues in the cabinet, and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), established in Suharto's New Order administration in 1993, is the country's national human rights institution.
In 2024, Freedom House rated Indonesia's human rights freedom as 57 out of 100 (partly free).
Overview
Advocates for human rights have noted actions by the government of Indonesia as concerning. Although the country has had Komnas HAM, which enjoys a degree of independence from government and holds United Nations accreditation, the commission itself has little effect as it was not given any legal teeth against discriminatory practices committed by the government.
Reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United States Department of State highlighted the most common human rights issues in Indonesia, namely the situation in Western New Guinea region, the treatment of religious, gender and sexual minorities, sexual and reproductive rights, the rights of women, children, LGBT, and the disabled, and freedom of expression and association.
Joko Widodo became the second Indonesian president to acknowledge past human rights abuses in his country. He publicly acknowledged the bloodshed of the 1960s. He also cited 12 cases, including massacres by anti-communists, from 1965 to 1969, highlighting human rights violations in the Papua region. He assured that such serious human rights violations would never happen again.
While democratic reforms have strengthened civil liberties since the fall of Suharto in 1998, concerns remain over military influence in civilian affairs, restrictions on freedom of expression, and ongoing discrimination against minorities. Amendments in 2025 to military law and increasing reports of intimidation against journalists highlighted continuing challenges.
Legislation In the original text of the 1945 Constitution (before amendments) there are various basic rights and obligations for citizens, but the term "human rights" itself is not mentioned in the text. According to Indonesian legal expert and current Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, human rights are different from citizen rights contained in the 1945 Constitution, because human rights are considered rights inherent in humans naturally, while citizen rights are particular rights acquired because of one's Indonesian citizenship. On the other hand, Soedjono Sumobroto said that human rights are actually implied in the 1945 Constitution through Pancasila. In addition, in the preamble, content, and explanation of the current constitution, there are at least 15 principles of human rights.
Meanwhile, other legal experts like Kuntjoro Purbopranoto have observed that there are human rights guarantees in the 1945 Constitution but not included systematically. According to him, there are only four articles that contain human rights provisions, namely Articles 27, 28, 29 and 31. Legal expert Solly Lubis also believes that the formulation of rights in the constitution is indeed very simple and brief, but according to Majda El Muhtaj this is natural because the drafting of the 1945 Constitution was too short to catch up with the time so that the 1945 Constitution could become the foundation for the newly independent state of Indonesia. The constitution itself was originally in effect from 18 August 1945 to 27 December 1945, but its enactment was ineffective due to the national revolution and socio-political conditions that were not conducive at the time.
After the Round Table Conference, the 1949 Constitution of the United States of Indonesia (RIS Constitution) came into effect. The constitution does not explicitly mention the word "human rights", however it clearly stipulates human rights in Part V entitled "Basic Human Rights and Freedoms". This section contains 27 articles, namely Articles 7 to 33. In addition, the 1949 RIS Constitution also sets out the basic obligations of the state related to human rights enforcement efforts in Section 6 ("Basic Principles"), itself consists of 8 articles. This emphasis on human rights is the influence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. The 1945 Constitution were returned into effect in 1959, and only underwent a number of amendments (including the human rights provisions) after the fall of the New Order.
Human rights provisions then further stipulated in Act Number 39 of 1999 on Human Rights (Undang-Undang Nomor 39 Tahun 1999 tentang Hak Asasi Manusia).
However, new legislation, such as the 2025 amendment to the 2004 Military Law, has raised concerns about potential democratic backsliding by expanding the military's role in civilian governance.
Use of force and impunity The Indonesian National Police (Polri) used unnecessary and excessive force against demonstrators and protesters, especially concerning land dispute cases. In the rare instances where investigations took place, little progress was made in bringing perpetrators to justice. In January, six palm oil farmers were seriously injured in Jambi Province after Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers fired rubber bullets at them in an attempt to evict them from a plantation on which they were working. The plantation was the subject of an ongoing land dispute between the farmers and a palm oil company. In June, security forces used unnecessary and excessive force while attempting to evict forcibly a community in Langkat district, North Sumatra. The community had been involved in a land dispute with the local authorities. When the community protested against the eviction, police officers fired on the crowd without warning, injuring at least nine people. Six others were kicked and beaten.
Amnesty International reports that over the last decade, significant steps have been taken to reform the Polri. The government has put in place legislative and structural reforms to strengthen their effectiveness in preventing and detecting crime, maintaining public order and promoting the rule of law. The police have also introduced internal regulations to ensure that international human rights standards are upheld during policing operations. Despite these positive moves, credible reports of human rights violations committed by the police continue to emerge, with the police routinely using unnecessary and excessive force and firearms to quell peaceful protests. Police have been implicated in beatings, shootings and killings of people during mass demonstrations, land disputes or even routine arrests.
Although the authorities have made some attempts to bring alleged perpetrators to justice using internal disciplinary mechanisms, criminal investigations into human rights violations by the police are all too rare, leaving many victims without access to justice and reparations. This situation is made worse by the lack of an independent, effective, and impartial complaints mechanism which can deal with public complaints about police misconduct, including criminal offences involving human rights violations. While existing bodies such as the Komnas HAM or the National Police Commission (Kompolnas) are able to receive and investigate complaints from the public, they are not empowered to refer these cases directly to the Public Prosecutor's Office or the police internal disciplinary body.
Repeated allegations of torture and otherwise ill-treating detainees by security forces, particularly peaceful political activists in areas with a history of independence movements such as Papua and Maluku region, has been reported. Independent investigations into such allegations were rare. There were no investigations into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of 21 peaceful political activists by Special Detachment-88 (Densus-88), a police counter-terrorism unit. The 21 had been tortured during arrest, detention and interrogation in Maluku in August 2010. Caning was increasingly used as a form of judicial punishment in Aceh. At least 72 people were caned for various offences, including drinking alcohol, being alone with someone of the opposite sex who was not a marriage partner or relative (khalwat), and for gambling. The Acehnese authorities passed a series of by-laws governing the implementation of Sharia after the enactment of the province's Special Autonomy Law in 2001.
On 29 August 2020, Indonesian police forcibly raided on a private gathering of 56 men in Jakarta, arresting nine men and charging them with the crime of "facilitating obscene acts", which discriminates against the LGBT community. The charges violated the right to privacy, association and equal protection of the law, and highlighted the threat to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the country.
In March 2025, pro-democracy groups argued that recent legal changes risked reinstating the military’s historical impunity.
Discrimination Religious
Freedom of religion in Indonesia only applies to adherents of six major religious groupings, Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Protestantism. Questioning any of those six religious groupings can lead to five years in prison for "insulting a major religion" and six more years in prison if the act occurs on the Internet. Indonesia's Criminal Code prohibits blasphemy. In July 2005, the MUI issued a fatwa that condemned the sect of Ahmadiyya as heretical. In June 2008, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a Joint Ministerial Letter regarding the Ahmadiyya. The letter told authorities to restrict Ahmadiyya activities to private worship and to prevent Amadhi Muslims from proselytising. Provincial governors in West Sumatra, South Sumatra, and West Nusa Tenggara banned all Ahmadiyya activity. At least 18 Christian churches had been attacked or forced to close down. In many cases, the police failed to protect religious and other minority groups adequately from such attacks. In February, three Ahmadis were killed after a 1,500-person mob attacked them in Cikeusik, Banten Province. On 28 July 12, people were sentenced to between three and six months' imprisonment for their involvement in the incident. No one was charged with murder, and local human rights groups raised concerns about the weak prosecution. The Mayor of Bogor continued to defy a 2010 Supreme Court ruling ordering the authorities to reopen the Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church. The congregation was forced to conduct its weekly services on the pavement outside the closed church, amid protests from radical groups.
In November 2018, the Indonesian government released a smartphone app called "Smart Pakem" which allows its users to file a report to the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office anyone suspected of practising officially unrecognised faiths or of having unorthodox interpretations of Indonesia's six officially recognised religions.
In 2024, Freedom House rated Indonesia's religious freedom as 1 out of 4, noting that Indonesia officially recognizes six religions. While individuals may leave the "religion" section on their identity cards blank, doing so often leads to discrimination, especially for adherents of unrecognized faiths. Atheism is not legally accepted, and the criminal code contains provisions against blasphemy, penalizing those who "distort" or "misrepresent" recognized faiths. Building a new house of worship is challenging due to the 2006 Joint Ministerial Decision, which requires approval from both congregation members and local residents.