The Faculty of Law (FH) of the Jakarta Veterans National Development University (UPNVJ) held an international conference with the theme "Equity, Social Justice and Rule of Law Across the Sustainable Development Goals" which was held both online and offline on Friday (22/4/22).
Dr. Abdul Halim, Dean of the Faculty of Law in his opening remarks said that this international seminar aims to provide ideas related to the evolution of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially on the 16th point related to justice, legislation, and strong institutions. It is hoped that UPNVJ will become one of the institutions that support the evolution of the 16th SDG in the future.
In this extraordinary opportunity, the Faculty of Law invited guest speakers, one of whom was Valerie Julliand, who is the representative of the United Nations.
In her presentation, Valerie said that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 16 is dedicated to creating a peaceful and inclusive society, providing access to justice for all, and building effective and accountable institutions at all levels.
“The main goal of SDG 16 is to end violence, exploitation, human trafficking, and all forms of violence and abuse against children. SDG 16 is critical to ensuring accountability, stability, equity and access to justice for all. The basis target for this SDG intersects with other SDGs. Without the law supremacy, there will be no rules or regulations regarding the society; we will harm each other, crimes will continue to occur, and so on,” explained Valerie.
Apart from Valerie, Dr. K.G.H Laurens Bakker, who is a lecturer and a researcher in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, was also invited as a guest speaker.
In this case, Laurens compared the nature of the rules, different legal bases, inherent security and similar societal consequences between Indonesia and Netherlands.
"Custom in Dutch Law stipulates that 'an agreement does not only have the legal consequences agreed upon bt the parties, but also those which, according to the nature of the agreement, arise from the law, custom or the requirements of reasonableness and fairness'. In Netherlands the existence of customary law is weak while in Indonesia its position in law is stronger. Natural resource conflicts in Netherlands and Indonesia are the same between citizens versus the state, and companies and national economic interests. Meanwhile, references to injustice and references to human rights are the same in Netherlands and Indonesia,” explained Laurens.
Another guest speaker, Collie Brown, a member of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), explained that prisoners are basically examples of institutions related to transparency and good governance from a public perspective.
“A process to be able to become part of a more inclusive society is needed, so a rehabilitation process was created to give perpetrators the opportunity to return to society. Social relations in society can make the economic justice system in a country feels unfair and discriminatory,” said Collie.
Prof. Tim Lindsey Ph.D., who is the Malcolm Smith Professor of Asian Law, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at the University of Melbourne Law School, who was also present on this occasion said that the sustainable development goals 16 slip in justice and strong institutions.
“This is not an easy goal to attach to, few countries will be able to fully realize the goal in Indonesia as progress towards achieving these two aspects of SDG 16. At the very least, within these values include the lack of proper legal representation in a fair trial such as provision of interpretations and other issues too. even if the sentence of a client accused of being sentenced to death is a sad case raises important questions about the right to equal access to justice. If necessary, at least there needs to be a strong statement that the law has clear rights for legal assistance to clients," said Prof. Tim Lindsey.