JakartaPost-Apr 14, 20214
The Civic Groups Coalition (KMS) has raised an alarm over the rushed process to revise the country’s Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), warning that lawmakers’ ongoing work to produce a draft bill lacks accountability, sidelines public input and risks entrenching human rights violations in the judicial system. The proposed revisions to the KUHAP, a set of guidelines for the litigation process from pretrial motions to appeals, are part of a broader agenda for legal reform. The new KUHAP is intended to align with the new Criminal Code (KUHP) passed in 2022, which takes effect next year. The House of Representatives started drafting the bill earlier this year and its deliberation is expected to start later this month, after lawmakers return to work following a three-week recess. During the last plenary meeting of the legislature’s January-March session, House Speaker Puan Maharani of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) read out a letter from President Prabowo Subianto green-lighting the deliberation of revisions to the KUHAP Law. While the House speakership is yet to appoint a commission to work on the draft bill, the final version is expected to be brought to a plenary vote in the coming months. Activists slammed the preliminary drafting process as lacking transparency, with little information made available to the public. They also said the House had not adequately consulted key stakeholders, including legal experts, academics and human rights groups. The civic coalition also noted how lawmakers had suddenly moved forward with the House’s own version of the draft, endorsing it as a legislature-initiated bill in a plenary session on Feb. 18, although they had promised to create the bill “from scratch” through an open, inclusive process. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2025/04/14/calls-mount-for-transparency-in-kuhap-law-revision.html.
