The human rights situation in many Indonesian villages have been impacted by the pandemic. Beyond the direct effects on the right to health, there are also many rights that are indirectly affected. For example the right to education, as education now takes place on the internet and many families are unable to pay for good internet access. Many livelihoods are also affected, and ongoing conflicts around land and resources seem not to have decreased under the pandemic - in some places, they may even have intensified.
Most of the attention about the social impacts of the pandemic, have focused on urban areas, although roughly half of the Indonesian population lives in villages. Villages have long been subject to top-down decision-making. The 2014 Village Law could be read as enabling more village autonomy and more democratic decision-making at village level, but knowledge is needed to make use of this opportunity, and there are also elements in the law that could pull in the opposite direction.
The trainings were held by NCHR partner institution the Institute for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (EI). The trainings focused on how the village law could be used by the villagers to address human rights issues relevant for their specific local context. The trainings drew on the guide to right-based implementation of the village law, that was previously developed by EI, NCHR and Lakpesdam NU. This guide emphasises, among other things, transparency and participation in decision-making, accountability, involvement of women, and fulfilment of basic socio-economic rights.
The participants were regular villages as well as members of the village administration. They were generally very pleased with the trainings, said that they found it useful and came up with many specific plans on how to improve rights-protection in their villages.