Yayasan Sosial (IKA)- Better Together The 1965 tragedy in Indonesia has caused millions of people murdered, disappeared, tortured, stigmatized, and stripped of their rights to social security. For years, communities of 65' victims and civil society organizations have been working to gain government recognition as well as acknowledgement of the gross human rights violations in Indonesia and to make sure the victims entitled to reparations. This hard work has started to pay off, but the increasingly limited civic spaces has caused these achievements to gradually disappear.
Covid-19 pandemic has continued to limit the civic space in Indonesia. It is increasingly more difficult for civil society to perform advocacy work where the government policies on social restriction are complicating the process. This pandemic has also made it difficult for the victims to access social assistance as there are fewer accompaniers to assist due to concerns of transmitting or contracting the virus, closed social service center, or limited working hours and limited number of services.
We understand, there is an urgent need for civil society to strengthen the movement and to reclaim civic spaces as well as expanding it by connecting and organizing communities of young people to become leaders and center of humanrights work in the perspective of helping victims of past human rights violations getting their rights of reparation and through VOICE program, IKa, Sekber ‘65 and PBH Nusra organizations will respond this vision by implementing five main activities.
First, claiming economic, socio-cultural rights of victims of past gross human rights violations, and to be able to ensure this work, SEKBER ‘65 and PBH Nusra will update data of the victims and their families, classified them based on their current living condition. This information will be used in making sure the victimscan access the nearest social security support system. Data collection will be carried out by trained accompaniers.
Second, throughpublic campaigns designed, led, and run by young people, social acceptance of victims of past gross human rights violations will beexpanding. These groups of young people work with spirits of volunteerism and a comprehensive understanding of human rights and arereinforced by national youth conferences and regional youth community meetings.
Third, Consortium members ensure that the fulfillment of economic, socio-cultural rights of victims of past human rights violations is included in the form of regional regulations. With the formation of a Regional Commission in charge of establishing a working program, ensuring that the implementation of the Regional Regulation is carried out accordingly.
Fourth, a collaboration between youths and victims in creating content materials for social media campaigns, organizing art and cultural events such as Ketoprak, fashion shows, and held public fundraising events together will fill empty civic spaces and continue to expand them.
Fifth, organizational sustainability is very important to continue building the civil society movement in Indonesia. And through the VOICE program, the capacity of civil society organizations will continue to be improved to ensure that organizational resources remain to do their works which is accountable to the public.