The government is drastically cutting the budgets of three independent commissions that focus on rights protections, potentially crippling their advocacy programs and studies.

The National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) will see their budgets slashed by 30 percent for the remainder of the year.

The commissions said in a joint statement that the cuts would have a significant impact on their ongoing programs. "The unilateral budget cuts automatically have implications for the fulfilment of human rights and the constitutional rights of [Indonesian] citizens," said Masruchah, the deputy chairwoman of Komnas Perempuan.

Desti Murdijana, the secretary general of the organization, said the cuts would have an effect on women. "One of the impacts of the budget cuts will be the delay of our annual study on violence against women in Indonesia. [The study] is our way of tracking down the figures and trends each year," she said.

Masruchah said her commission would only receive Rp 7 billion ($755,000) this year. "This will affect 85 percent of our programs," she said. "There was no discussion before this [announcement]. We tried sending a letter to the Finance Ministry but we did not get a response."

Komnas Perempuan also gets funding from donors, which Masruchah said was just enough to cover its overhead costs.

Komnas Anak chairwoman Maria Ulfa Anshori said her agency was already struggling to keep programs running on a shoestring budget of Rp 8.6 billion last year.

Joseph Adi Prasetyo, deputy chairman of Komnas HAM, said that his agency's budget had already dwindled by as much as Rp 7.3 billion from last year's Rp 53.7 billion. The figure was reduced again last month to Rp 31 billion. "My question is, are human rights still high on the government's agenda or has the government simply stopped caring about human rights?" he said.

The commissions are urging the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the Finance Ministry to reconsider the cuts and have asked the House of Representatives to relay their concerns.

The government has been slashing spending since the House rejected a plan to raise the price of subsidized fuel.