UNAIR NEWS – Ministry of Social and Political Affairs, UNAIR Faculty of Law Student Executive Board, collaborates with Amnesty International Indonesia Chapter UNAIR to celebrate International Human Rights Day which is celebrated every December 10 by holding workshops. The workshop “Human Rights Advocacy 101 Workshop ” was held on Thursday afternoon, December 10, 2020, discussing human rights advocacy practices in the field.
The first speaker was Nurina Savitri, a Media and Campaign Manager at Amnesty International Indonesia. The alumna of UNAIR International Relations program explained about the performance of Amnesty International Indonesia in advocating for human rights values in the country. She was present as a speaker at the workshop that afternoon because Amnesty International Indonesia’s Growth and Community Engagement Manager Waskito Jati, was unable to attend and Nurina was his replacement.
Nurina explained that the focus of Amnesty International Indonesia’s human rights struggle is on the campaign and inviting the public to speak up on an issue. Before a campaign is carried out, Nurina shared that the team had done a mapping on issues and thinking of a form of collaboration run a campaign for an issue. It is believed that collaboration can lead to bigger impact on the issue.
“The most important thing is, we have to prepare ourselves and accept that the issues to be advocated for will usually take a long time, usually years, because we know for ourselves that human rights problems often have to collide with various factors in order to achieve this. All human rights advocacy needs a life-long struggle. We see the examples from Munir’s and Semanggi tragedy case, ”said the Universiteit Antwerpen alumna.
The steps for Amnesty International Indonesia’s campaign described by Nurina included carrying out an urgent action during the blasphemy case committed by DKI Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or better known as Ahok. Amnesty International Indonesia considers that this case constitutes a violation of freedom of expression and the criminalization is very racist and politically biased. For this reason, the urgent action taken by them is to invite other local branches of Amnesty International to participate in a campaign on this issue.
“In fact, this case even got notified by Amnesty International thanks to the support of Amnesty International branches in other countries,” she said.
Another campaign model that was also presented by Nurina was issuing a recommendation paper. It was done by Amnesty International Indonesia when advocating for the murder of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani, who was allegedly killed by military personnel.
“By issuing a paper, we can also present this issue in a more comprehensive and academic way,” she concluded.
The workshop also invited Vice Dean II Faculty of Law UNAIR Syaiful Aris and Legal Services Division of LBH APIK, Tuani Sondang Rejeki.
Author: Pradnya Wicaksana
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
