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Climate change has adversely impacted all aspects of human life, including in the context of disaster and displacement. In 2021, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported 28.6 million new displacement cases caused by hydrometeorological disasters, such as floods, storms, and landslides, where these disasters’ frequency and scale were significantly affected by climate change condition. Moreover, this data does not even include displacement caused by climate-related slow-onset disasters, such as sea level rise and drought. Research estimated that by 2050, there will be 150 million displaced persons caused by climate change-related disasters. Therefore, the interlinkages between climate change and disaster have received special attention by government in different countries around the world, including in Indonesia.
According to IDMC, in 2021, 52 climate change-related disasters occurred in Indonesia causing 749.000 cases of displacement, which 82% of them were caused by La Nina-induced floods. Between January and August 2022, National Disaster Management Agency of Indonesia reported 2.230 disaster cases in Indonesia, where hydrometeorological disasters had the highest frequency and forced 2 million people to move, either temporarily or permanently.
As a disaster-prone country, Indonesia has enacted Law No. 24 of 2007 on Disaster Management as the main legal instrument that addresses all disaster-related issues, including in the context of displacement. Indonesia also has included disaster management as one of the national priority issues, as reflected in President Regulation No. 18 of 2020 on National Medium-term Development Plan 2020-2024 (RPJMN 2020-2024), which specifically stipulate the environmental development, disaster resilience improvement, and climate change as national development agenda. RPJMN 2020-2024 also included disaster risk and climate change as two pillars that should be mainstreamed in the national development strategy, which emphasized on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures.
Furthermore, the Government of Indonesia is currently pushing for the integration of human rights principles as an approach to the development process, including in the context of climate change, disaster management, and human mobility. Thus, human rights-based approach is not only relevant for political, legal, defense, and security development, but also for the whole national development strategy. This integration is also mandated by the Presidential Regulation No. 53 of 2021 on National Human Rights Action Plan 2021-2025 (RANHAM 2021-2025), which underlines the respect, protection, fulfillment, enforcement, and promotion of human rights for four targeted groups, which are women, children, persons with disability, and indigenous people—including in disaster situation.
RANHAM is an integral instrument of ensuring fundamental rights, such as the right to life, to health, as well as childs’ right to development and to education, as these categories of rights are embedded upon all individuals. Guarantee over these rights are already indicated in international conventions ratified by Indonesia, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The ratification is followed by obligations for Indonesia to respect, protect, fulfill, enforce,and promote the human rights of every individual, with no exception, including in situations of disaster, emergency,and displacement.
To fulfill the abovementioned mandates and obligations, the Director General of Human Rights, Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia, supported by Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) and Paguyuban Hak Asasi Manusia Universitas Padjadjaran (PAHAM UNPAD), developed this discussion brief, titled ‘Human Rights-based Approach in Indonesia’s Legal Framework related to Climate Change, Disaster Management, and Human Mobility’.