Women win human rights honor

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Woman activists Suraiya Kamaruzzaman and Ester Jusuf Purba have been declared the joint winners of this year's Yap Thiam Hien human rights award.

Todung Mulya Lubis, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights Studies (Yapusham), said during a media conference on Friday that both Suraiya and Ester had dedicated their lives to defending the rights of Indonesian women.

The award will be presented to the winners on Monday at the National Museum.

Todung said Suraiya was chosen in recognition of her efforts to enhance social and economic status of Acehnese women and encourage them to fight against violence perpetrated by the military, while Ester was picked because of her struggle against racial discrimination, especially against Indonesians of Chinese descent.

Suraiya, a lecturer at the Banda Aceh-based Syah Kuala University, was born in Lam U village in Aceh Besar on June 3, 1968. Her efforts to defend Acehnese women started when she was still a student at the university.

In a bid to root out the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), former president Soeharto declared Aceh to be a military operation area in 1989, a situation that lasted until 1998 when Soeharto resigned. During that period, thousands of women and children were allegedly tortured, raped, and intimidated by the security forces. Some of them were forced to leave their homes and became refugees in other regions.

Meanwhile, Ester, a mother of two, was born in Malang, Central Java, on Jan. 15, 1971. She is known for her strong criticism of the government's discriminative policies towards minority groups.

Todung said the award was presented annually in memory of Yap Thiam Hien, a noted Indonesian lawyer who dedicated his life to the struggle for human rights protection in the country. The award was first presented in 1992.

The panel members included the rector of the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN), Azyumardi Azra, respected Surabaya lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, Surabaya-based Airlangga University law professor Soetandyo Wignyosoebroto, Semarang-based Diponegoro University law professor Maria S.W. Sumardjono and Atma Jaya University sociologist Mely G. Tan, he said.

Last year's recipient was Wardah Hafiz, chairman of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), a non-governmental organization helping to protect the rights of those victimized by Jakarta administration development programs.