The rights-based approach ensures basic service provision

The rights-based approach ensures basic service provision

UNSFIR, Jakarta

The government in Indonesia has in the past organized public
services with a centralized command structure that distributed
national resources according to central priorities.

The national 2004 Human Development Report argues for a
different, "rights-based" approach that would empower people
across the country to demand the services to which they are
entitled and to join in decisions on how and where these should
be delivered.

Indonesia has now held two successful elections since the end
of the New Order regime -- a clear sign of how much Indonesians
value their right to express their opinions and to choose their
own leaders. But a functioning electoral system is only one
aspect of freedom.

Indonesia's 2004 National Human Development Report argues that
in a democracy people should have a more comprehensive set of
rights, not just to select their political leaders but also to
live full and healthy lives, and to acquire the knowledge and
skills to maximize their capacities.

The report is a joint publication of the national planning
agency, BAPPENAS, the statistical agency, BPS, and the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It says: "Democracy in
Indonesia should be seen not as an end it itself but rather as a
vehicle that carries the country to a new era of opportunities.
Indeed if it does not do so there is a danger that many people
will become disillusioned with democracy and hanker for the false
security of autocratic rule".

The report argues that the responsibility has to be shared
very broadly. But Indonesians can also look for strong support
from the state. Indeed they have a right to expect such support
since they employ thousands of public servants and elect
thousands more political representatives, at both central and
local levels, who should be working on their behalf.

Though this sounds like a new idea the basic principles are
well established.

Indonesia has ratified both the Convention on the Elimination
of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child. Indeed in 1993 Indonesia even
endorsed the principles of an overall Right to Development which
establishes that people have not just political rights but also
social and economic rights.

Much of its responsibility is simply to create the conditions
in which the rights can be fulfilled, by upholding the rule of
law, for example, and building the kind of infrastructure that is
essential to development in a market economy.

However the government will also have to make direct provision
for essential items such as basic education and health care as
well as physical security that many people would not be able to
get from the market.

To a significant extent the Indonesian government already does
this. It does after all provide public schools and hospitals, and
during the economic crisis stepped in to construct a social
safety net for the poorest. What is different about looking at
this same activity from the perspective of rights? The report
points to a number of key elements.

One is the central principle of equality. Human rights are
possessed equally by everyone, from the occupant of the
presidential palace, to inhabitants the most remote village in
Papua. This means achieving the same standards of service
delivery across the country which demands constant efforts to
meet the rights of those who have been marginalized and excluded.

Another crucial component of the rights approach is
participation. The rights approach pays close attention not just
to the fulfillment of rights but also to the way in which they
are fulfilled. People should be able to participate fully in
determining rights and setting priorities. This also implies
empowerment.

The rights approach also implies performance standards --
setting targets and monitoring their achievement. This is the
philosophy behind the United Nations Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), for example, which set targets on issues like poverty
reduction, on school enrollment and on gender equality. Indonesia
has produced its own report on the MDGs which shows that the
country should be on course to meet many of these goals by the
year 2015.

It might be argued, however, that despite Indonesia's
commitment to the rights-based approach this is not the most
appropriate time to try to deliver on it -- given that the
country is still recovering from one of the worst economic crises
in its history, is undergoing a systemic transition and faces
tight budgetary constraints.

Meanwhile it also faces the hugely complex process of
decentralizing much of its public administration to hundreds of
districts across a vast archipelago.

In fact these are precisely the circumstances when the rights
approach is particularly appropriate because it offers a new
impulse for human development.

For seven years Indonesia has been focusing largely on
survival, and on moving from a corrupt autocracy to a more modern
and democratic, rules-based society. The rights approach offers a
route to the future -- carrying with it aspirations and a sense
of entitlement. This is not just rhetorical; it is also a process
of imagining -- of enabling people to envisage the future.