Imung Yuniardi, Semarang – Thousands of low-income people in Central Java have been deprived of their right to legal aid, according to an NGO.
According to a recent Legal Aid Institute (LBH) report, 2,866 people marginalized or economically residents of Central Java have been barred from legal access.
"The real number could be many times more as that figure just includes those who receive legal aid from us," LBH's Semarang office director Siti Rahma Mary Herwaty said.
She said the government was at fault for its failure to protect the people's rights to justice. "Equality before the law is manifested by providing legal aid to economically poor people, as it is their constitutional right," Siti said.
The government's responsibilities, according to Siti, were ascribed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates that a state was absolutely obliged to fulfill the people's political and civil rights.
Indonesia had ratified the convention by law, she said, adding that "The 1945 Constitution also mentions such rights. This means that the state has been violating both."
She said the bill on legal aid currently under discussion by the House of Representatives and the government, though welcome, contained several points that might weaken the provision of legal aid to low-income people.
"A review must be done to ensure that the rights of the economically poor, the marginalized and the legally illiterate are guaranteed," she said.
Siti said that 85 percent of LBH Semarang's clients were communities or groups that had annual incomes of less than Rp 2 million (US$222).
Of the 19 structural legal aids that the institute provides, she said, four were advocacy on legal products and bylaws.
Central Java provincial legal bureau chief Prasetyo Ariwibowo said the administration had to issue policies and field complaints.
"Up to now, the provincial administration has not had the authority to provide legal aid to the people because there has not been a regulation," Prasetyo said.
Budget limitations, the limited coverage of the legal bureau, the centralization of most legal aid providers in the provincial capital and bureaucracy have also impeded services to low-income people, according to reports.