Deputy Minister of Human Rights: Forest Fire Law Enforcement Must Not Only Target Small Fry
The Ministry of Human Rights is pushing for a thorough investigation into the alleged involvement of corporations in forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Law enforcement, it stressed, must not stop at field-level executors but must target those bearing corporate responsibility.
Deputy Minister of Human Rights Mugiyanto stated that law enforcement must go hand in hand with identifying the root of the problem. The government needs to ascertain whether the burning was carried out independently or driven by large-scale business interests.
“We must know who did it. Are these individuals, and are the individuals working alone, or are they working for a large company? That is what needs to be identified,” Mugiyanto asserted in Jakarta on Monday (31/8).
He emphasised that law enforcement officers must not only target low-level perpetrators but are obliged to uncover the business entities that profit from land management.
“Do not just go after those individual small fry, but we must see what is behind them, what company,” he said.
According to Mugiyanto, the government has identified a number of business entities suspected of being linked to forest and land fires. This step is considered urgent to break the chain of ecological disasters that recur every dry season.
The prevalence of forest and land fires and other natural disasters underscores the crucial importance of regulating corporate behaviour through Business and Human Rights policy. The Ministry of Human Rights is currently accelerating the drafting of a human rights due diligence regulation together with the Ministry of Law.
“What we need to do now is to ensure that law enforcement officers truly take action against them, against anyone. And more than that, what the Ministry of Human Rights needs to do is to regulate the behaviour of businesses or business actors. The business conduct of corporations, that is what we will regulate,” said Mugiyanto.
He added that the President has granted initiative approval for the drafting of the regulation, which is currently entering the harmonisation stage.
“We will accelerate this. What happened recently with landslides and floods in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and now forest and land fires, increasingly shows that companies working in forest and mining management need to be regulated,” he explained.
Nevertheless, the regulation is not designed to hinder the investment climate, but rather to encourage corporations to operate ethically and with environmental awareness.
“We all invite corporations, all companies, to become ethical, human rights-based companies that are environmentally friendly and caring,” he said.
Under the planned scheme, human rights due diligence will be mandatory for companies with a minimum of 2,000 employees. However, the criteria also apply to corporations with high environmental risk even if they employ fewer workers.
“This means a company with, for example, 100 or 200 employees, but which is a mining or plantation company that has a serious impact on the environment and communities, can be assessed and subjected to due diligence,” he revealed.
Mugiyanto explained that this regulatory approach prioritises guidance and rewards for compliant companies.
“The spirit is constructive, not punitive. For companies with poor records, we will provide assistance so they can improve,” he said.
Even so, firm sanctions remain prepared for entities that ignore the principles of human rights fulfilment.
“The regulation is not a voluntary one. If they perform well, there are incentives, but there must also be punishment when they do not comply,” he concluded.