Educating Law with Peasant Communities: Struggling together for the right to land

Thousands of land conflict cases have been reported to the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) over the past few decades. These cases can be categorised into three main issues: Firstly, land expropriation and forced evictions. Secondly, the problem of compensation and restitution, specifically when peasant communities are offered compensation that is not equivalent to the real value of their land. Lastly, there is the problem of environmental disaster and pollution, which has an impact on the production process.

These problems are making peasant communities suffer as well as decreasing their standard of living. Therefore, they are suffering violations of both their civil and political rights, as well as their economic and social rights. This occurs often and the land conflict causes peasant families to become victims of intimidation and torture, sometimes even causing them death.

The types of violators can be separated into two categories: (1) private entities, in particular corporations and landlords (2) government institutions, for instance: Department of forestry, including the military and police. These violators abuse the communities in order to use their land for housing, plantations, fishponds, dams and other purposes. Besides using repression and intimidation tactics, the violators are also using the law to expropriate peasants’ land and weaken the peasant movement.

This article will describe LBH’s experience in organising and conducting a law education program in Lampung, South Sumatra and Bangka. The cases and training experiences in these areas are unique examples of some cases advocated by LBH. They are unique because the peasant communities in these regions have successfully reclaimed their land, something that is uncommon with land conflict struggle in Indonesia.

Law Education for Peasant Communities

Peasant communities are a target group for law training and education organised by LBH. In this context, the peasant community can be categorised into two main groups: tuna kisma (landless peasant) including labor-peasants who work in plantations belonging to private or State companies, and petani gurem, peasants who just have limited and small amounts of land, not enough to earn profits from the process of production.


Living together during law education

Law education and learning takes place within the peasant communities and the lawyers, activists and volunteers who work for LBH lived together with peasant during the training. The live-in aspect means that LBH’s staff stays in peasants’ homes for a period of time during the training. Below are the methods being exercised during the stay-in approach.

Firstly, LBH’s staffs commonly receives reports from peasants who are victims of human rights violations. The staffs will then discuss the details of the case with the client, such as the number of victims and perpetrators, the location where the violation took place, and with that information they will build a case study.

Secondly, The staff will discuss the case study with the other LBH staff members in order to formulate strategic planning for advocacy on behalf of the victims. One of the advocacy programs is law education in the villages. However, before conducting education work, there are some necessary steps to take in such as initial fact-finding activities to cross check the informations from the client. This informations will be used in order to prepare materials as well as logistics.

Thirdly, a team will be established composes of two or three staff members and which uses a rotation method for organising education in the village. The rotation method is applied in order to monitor the cases between staff that are on location in the village and in the office. In the village, LBH’s staff members also identify people who could be trained further in order to gain the skills necessary to become a paralegal – who can then act as a “local lawyer” in her/his community.


These education processes uses materials developed by LBH’s staff. The materials contains theory of law and positive law, including constitutional law as well as legal concepts regarding land and human rights as a tool in struggling for land rights. The law concepts are discussed between the staff and peasants and covers, for instance, themes of justice, law institution and law enforcement. Meanwhile, they also identify which laws can strengthen the struggle itself. A pocket book, leaflet, poster and other materials has been produced as a material kit. For example, LBH produced a pocket book regarding people’s rights in the judicial process as contained in Indonesian Penal Code Act, which benefited people if they faced problems of arrest and detention. As another example, LBH also produced a poster containing a list of articles, which gives protection for peasants and highlights the right to land.


Peasant communities in Lampung, South Sumatra and Bangka

Peasant communities are using law mechanisms and law arguments to defend their rights. However, these mechanisms are only used if they believed the results can strengthen their legal positions. As a result, in many cases peasant communities do not exercise the mechanism as they feel there are limitations and problems in law institutions and law enforcement. These consist of problems of corruption and red tape in judicial bodies. Many facts show that court decisions can even weaken the position of peasants and further violate their rights. For instance, if the court enacts a decision to give land to a corporation and a peasant is unable to provide a certificate or land title, it can become a justification for the corporation to carry out a forced eviction against the community. It is a common story for peasant families not having a land title. Land for them have been obtained based on inheritance. In some cases the land has been passed on to them even before Indonesia declared its independence from ?

In Lampung, South Sumatra and provinces of Bangka where LBH and peasant communities are working together to defend their land rights, peasant organisations are learning law from the LBH staff.

In the province of Lampung, there are two villages, Sidodadi Asri Jati Agung and Kertosari Tanjung Bintang, South Lampung District where people are managing law arguments and mechanisms in order to reclaim their land. About 600 peasant families faces land conflict against a State Corporation. After, several sessions on law studies and practicing strategies with the peasants the community efforts has yielded success

Nowadays, 600 families have power over the land. They are now organising their communities for land redistribution. The peasants also builds their houses on their hard fought land.

Likewise in Sidodadi village, a corporation is using the same tactics in law mechanisms to sue peasant families before local court in order to argue that the land is a state property. Constant meetings and education work with the villagers and LBH staffs also pays for the attainment of land for the peasants. They have won the case and have started to build a local market for the community people. In the opening ceremony of the market early this year , the villagers has even invited local government officials to give a speech and take pride of their achievement in struggling to own a land.

It can be said that these success stories could not be separated from the realities that peasants, LBH staffs and other organisations has worked together in cooperation, sacrifices, patience and hard work in the struggle to reclaim peasants’ rights. As a result, twenty thousands families from 80 villages in Lampung formed a peasant organisations, Lampung Peasant Council (DTL). At the start, LBH was involved in building these organisations. Many of the peasant families had become LBH’s client. LBH regularly discusses and educates peasants concerning the law and their rights.

In South Sumatra and Bangka, the cases are almost the same as in Lampung story. It is not always that the peasants learnt from LBH staffs. LBH people in humbleness are also learning with the peasant communities. In Musi Banyu Asin and Bangka hundreds of people in these areas reclaimed their natural resources and are defending them through litigation and non-litigation processes including demonstrations (mass rallies), lobbying and campaign work.


Learning points

From the illustration above, it can be said that lessons regarding law education are being learned through the live-in method. Firstly, peasant communities and LBH staff can examine the experiences of the peasants, develop a theory and concept of law using facts and their daily realities. Therefore, the education materials developed by LBH came from the real experiences of the people and not mere concepts.

Secondly, In the process of living with the peasants, the peasants become more open to speak about their problems. Some peasants felt proud that lawyers would be staying in their homes and willing to take a risk with them and also teaches them law. The education methodology is not formal and law training is performed anywhere, in peasant houses, farms, or organisation offices.

Thirdly, LBH’s staff and lawyers get direct knowledge in how to handle cases and these experiences are very useful when they are representing peasants before the court. Moreover, peasants can also use the law and “duplicate” (Stregthened) lawyer’s argument when they faces state structures and corporations.

In conclusion, the type of law education that makes use of the live-in approach has an impact and influences and promotes social change in peasant communities. It is now possible to say that it is relatively easy to find peasants in remote areas who could argue well and who are experts in speaking about the law, including acts and law mechanisms, as well as any lawyer in a capital city.

* Article for ARRC

End Note

(1) The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation was established in 1970 and having 14 branch offices in main capital of provinces. The offices received cases from the poor and marginal people. These cases are received by certain division, which are established in LBH. The prodeo lawyers offer service for peasant, fisheries, labour, urban poor, student, non-governmental organisation’s activist and other elements of society who become victims of human rights violence.
(2) Law education is conducted by LBH based on the need of community. Therefore, education curriculums are developed based on target group.
(3) In level of staff who work in LBH, it can be categorised into two groups: a staff who graduated from law faculty and obtaining lawyer permit and staffs who do not have a lawyer permit – they could graduated from other disciplines. Meanwhile, a volunteer is everyone who have finished certain process and being decided and selected as LBH’s volunteer.
(4) Not all cases based on complain or report from client. It also based on LBH’ staff initiative, for instance, as a follow up action a news in mass media.
(5) Education materials are given based on priority need of peasant communities in their village. For instance, material concerning economic, social and cultural rights is given after materials concerning people organisation. Read More..

Human Rights Education in the Five Provinces in Indonesia

A. General description of the Human Rights Education Conducted by the LBH

Since 1970’s, besides conducting the litigation activity[1](1), like giving assistance the client in conducting the legal proceedings at the court, the LBH Offices had conducted the human rights education, the material on human rights was given in the educational program conducted by the LBH. for example, the LBH gave material on the human rights theme in Indonesia during the Law Faculty Students Training conducted by the LBH Jakarta in 1978; Upgrading on the Junior Advocates and the Labour Training in 1980, and during the Legal Training through the radio (1981). Besides that, during this era, the LBH Jakarta begins to conduct essay writing competition on human rights and the report organization, make publication (poster, sticker, bulletin, magazines) on the human rights, particularly on the human rights development and situation in Indonesia. The activity like that continues till now.[2]

Viewed from the material point, the human rights material given during the human rights education conducted by the LBH Jakarta can be classified into two categories :

1. The human rights material in the training : Litigation, Training Works on Legal Aids (Kalabahu)[3], Training on the Labour Association; the Agrarian Training, Natural Resources Division, Research Division.[4]

2. The material especially designed for the training in the theme of human rights like the Documentation Training on the human rights violation, Training on the Fact Findings on the Human Rights for the PBH LBH and the students. This training is generally conducted by the Civil and Political Rights of the YLBHI.

Except the Litigation training and the Training Works on the Legal Aids, the training was conducted in the form of Training for Trainers (TOT) and the participants were derived from the organization invited by the LBH.[5] The Human Right Training Curriculum is organized based on the participants category involved, and is referred to the main curriculum for the participants derived from the LBH Offices, covering :

1. The Human Rights phase development;
2. The UN System;
3. The UN System at the domestic level;
4. The political interest and the Interest on Politics beyond the Human Rights Instruments.
5. State and Democracy

This curriculum is organized in reference to the material and training material on Human Rights conducted by the Human Rights organization. In general, the material is derived from the Workers of the Legal Aids taking part in the Human Rights education conducted in the country and overseas.

On every training conducted for the first and second category, we always presented the case study. The participants are grouped into several groups to discuss the cases they are facing and/ they have just read/seen at the media. Then they discuss three matters :

1. Type of the human rights violation that has taken place, on going and the one predicted to take place;
2. Conduct the social analysis on the cases;
3. Plan Action : Solution and Problems.

The facilitator/trainer for the human rights training are derived from the Workers of the Legal Aids, Academicians and the NGO’s activists. And the training of the first category, the LBH involve the expert sources from the government institution, legal institution and the professionals.[6]


B. The Human Rights Education in the Five Provinces

During the period of 1998-2001, the YLBHI and LBH Jakarta conducted several human rights training in 14 of the LBH offices.[7] In order to give clearer picture of the human rights training, the writer took five samples of human rights training conducted in 5 provinces, in Banda Aceh, Jayapura, Makassar, Palembang and in Jakarta.

The matrix is organized based on the majority of opinions (above 15 people) of the participants involved in the human rights raining.[8] The training was mostly participated by 30-40 participants. Of course, beyond the matrix, the participants disclosed the same opinions to the other participants. For example, the students activists said that it was important for them to know and study more deeply of the United Nations System and some of the NGO’s activists said that they were interested with the topic of the human rights movement. And also, some farmers and labourers who said that they wanted to study more deeply on the regulations and legislation related to the Human Rights.

1. The majority of the representatives of the labourers and farmers said they expected that the human rights training would help them solve the cases they were facing, like the lands condemnations and the work termination;
2. The majority of the NGO’s activists said that the government apparatus and parliament were not the important elements to promote the human rights, but on the action plan they were trying to organize, most of them said that lobby to the parliament and government were important to do, particularly in relation to the policy making;
3. The majority of the students were more interested in material on the Human Rights, particularly those related to the mass action;
4. The NGO’s activists and students activists said that the people organizations were the main elements which influenced the human rights promotion;
5. The majority of the three participants said that media was an important element for the human rights promotion and the human rights monitoring. Besides that, they also said that forming the working network and communication one another continuously was an important work that should be done after training;
6. Accordingly, expressions uttered during the training by the participants were about the matters organized in the matrix as above.


C. Hindrance and Solution

From the experience of organizing the human rights training, there were two kinds of problems often faced by the training organizers (LBH) and the participants, among others:

1. The training conducted outside of Java, terror from the military personnel and police still took place, like when the training was conducted in Jayapura (West Papua). The military personnel came to the hotel where the training was conducted. They committed the terror by asking training method to the local organizer and to the participants and they tried to grasp the material and entered into the training committee’s room. Accordingly, the participants and the training organizers concentration was disturbed.

2. There was a case where the training participants recommended by the organizer and who was invited by the LBH did not conduct their action plan they had organized together because they had a lot of routine work, some of them moved to other institutions, etc.

Based on the above facts, we should conduct very mature preparation for every training, particularly on the location selection and the training venue. The second thing that we should pay attention is the criteria for the participants and the invited institutions, written recommendation should be requested for the participants and that they should submit brief writing on their own experience. And of course, the commitment will all depend on each individual.


D. Closing

In the 1980 era - mid 1990, the human rights training material was more focused on the civil and political rights. After the fall of Soeharto in 1998, the LBH tried to develop material related to the economy, social and culture. Based on the current situation and condition, the LBH now has the tendency to conduct training related to resolution of conflict and reconciliation, in consideration of the communal conflict taking place in Indonesia. Besides that, we also try to develop the educational material and promotion/campaign on the human rights in relation to the refugees and the Internal Displaced Person.

We continue conduction the evaluation on the human rights training curriculum. The consulting and evaluation process is conducted every year and is facilitated by the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation - YLBHI. We may say that this program will produce more inspiration to perfect the curriculum, particularly those related to the organizing the human rights training activity conducted by the LBH Jakarta.


Attachment: 1
The Kalabahu 2001 Curriculum

The Kalabahu material is organized for the participants who are interested to be the worker of the Legal Aid in particular and in general, the material is expected to be useful for those who will take part in the legal activities and the human rights. To reach that purpose, the Kalabahu material is organized with the following classifications:
1. General Material/Introduction
2. Special Material
3. Litigation Material
4. Workshop/Training
5. Simulation of Mock Trial
6. Supporting Material
7. Case Study
8. Observation and Discussion on result

Intention for teaching the eight category of the material as above is as follows:

I. General Material
This material is the cultural theme in current. By teaching this material, the participants are expected to understand the problems being faced by the nation, by the society and by the members of society, in the international scale and in national and local scale.

II. Special Material
This material is taught in relation to the YLBHI existence, LBH Jakarta and the Division existing in the LBH Jakarta, (1) Civil and Political Rights; (2) Urban Division and Urban Society; (3) Labourer Division; (4) Women Division and; (5) Research Division, Publication and Education.

III. Litigation Material
The participants will get understanding on:

1. The case handling pattern with the public dimension interest
2. Jurisdiction technical in handling the case covers :
- the knowledge on the efforts used to defend the case, pursuant to the prevailing legal procedure.
- skill in analyzing the case as the consideration material in determining the strategy and tactic in handling the case comprehensively.
3. The concrete samples of the case handling by the LBH Jakarta


IV. Workshop/Training

The participants get the knowledge and skill by conducting the direct practice.


V. Simulation

Introduce the participants to the legal practice by conducting the simulation of the Mock Trial.


VI. The Supporting Material

The material taught to the participants are in the action form so that the participants will get general picture of the material so that they will be able to make it as guidance in planning, organizing, actuating and in carrying out the actions needed.

VII. The Case Study

The participants are expected to be able to analyze the cases in the concrete manner in the manifested form and the case that will take place (latent) and then they will be able to apply the prevailing provisions (in material and in formal way) and understand the way how to handle the case in the litigation and non-litigation manner.

*Paper to be presented on the Asian Human Rights Education Trainer’s Colloquium, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 1 - 6 April 2001.

** Head of the Research Division, Publication and Education of the LBH Jakarta.

End Note

[1] The Legal Aids Foundation (LBH) receives thousands of legal proceedings every year. IN 1970’s, number of the legal seekers coming to the LBH Jakarta was 5,706 persons. In 1980 this number was increased to 7,006 persons. During the 2000 number of clcients coming to LBH Jakarta was 20,252 persons of the 1,026 cases, with the details of : Labour Division received 371 cases; Sipol Division received (232 cases); the Urban Division and the Urban Society (186 cases) and Special Division (237 cases). Since the Legal Assistance Divisions were limited, the incoming cases were selected with certain criteria.

[2] The LBH Working Report

[3] You can see attachment regarding the Kalabahu Curriculum for 2001 conducted on 19th March to 26th April.

[4] See: the LBH Organization Structure in the Indonesian Legal Aids Foundation, Hand In hand With the People for Democracy, with no year, p. 12.

[5] The Ligitation training is the training where the training participants w=are given the material related to the empowerment of the legal proceedings as one of the advocating media. And the Training Works on Legal Aids is one of the processes which must be passed by the LBH Jakarta volunteers.

[6] See: attachment

[7] See: the LBH Offices in the Legal Aid Foundation, Op.cit., p. 14.

[8] This matrix is organized based on the experience and the report by the writer when he was the organizer and facilitator in various trainings on human rights and during his working period at Palembang LBH, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and and LBH Jakarta (1995 - now). Read More..