Jakarta – The government is set to discuss and review discriminatory and intolerant bylaws issued by regional administrations, the Home Ministry's acting regional autonomy director general, Akmal Malik, has said.
The directorate general will meet soon with relevant stakeholders, including the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Indonesian Ombudsman as well as rights watchdog the Setara Institute.
Setara recently published a study – conducted from September 2018 to February 2019 – that documented 24 and 91 discriminatory bylaws in Yogyakarta and West Java, respectively.
Akmal said the ministry had also conducted a study into laws across the country that were not in line with human rights principles.
"We will hold a meeting to thoroughly look into the results of the studies," Akmal said as quoted by Antara.
While the Constitutional Court has revoked the Home Ministry's authority to annul bylaws, Akmal expressed confidence the government could communicate and persuade regional administrations to reconsider the discriminatory bylaws.
"Regional autonomy [in Indonesia] gives space for regional administrations to evaluate their mistakes," he said. (gis)