Protecting the Rights of Mental Health Patients: Comparative Study between Indonesia and Taiwan

The phenomenon of human shackling upon people with mental health disorder are still found in Indonesia. The latest data from Human Rights Watch shows that more than 18,800 people now live in shackled in Indonesia. The paper aims to elaborate the existing regulation on mental health patients in Indonesia and analyze necessary steps to be taken by the Indonesian Government to provide better protection for mental health patients. This normative legal research employs comparative approach. Comparison was made with Taiwan. The study shows that human shackling still persists in Indonesia due to some reasons including the inadequacy of regulations, the lack of mental health hospitals, the shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health providers, as well as the lack of educations

Consolidating Indonesia’s Fragile Elections Through E-Voting: Lessons Learned from India and the Philippines

This research argues that implementing the electronic voting (e-voting) system in Indonesia is urged following the nation's first-ever 2019 simultaneous elections, which cost a deadly price of 527 election official lives of reported extreme fatigue during and after the event. Billed as "the world's most complex election", it has reached a consensus that the current manual election system, in which five different paper-based elections are voted at a time, has to be changed. Not to mention that the long-time gap between the voting day and the result announcement may create an opportunity for election fraud. This is evidenced by loads of electoral dispute lawsuits from the previous election brought to the Constitutional Court of Indonesia accused the others of cheating. This research stresses that despite the controversies of whether Indonesia, an archipelagic country with more than 17 thousand islands and 267 million people, is ready for e-voting.  Whether the application of technology is an appropriate response to the election problems? E-voting is desired as a long-term solution and intends to solve many issues such as speeding the counting of ballots, reducing the cost of elections, providing accessibility for disabled voters, and increasing overall voter turnout

Internet Shutdown in Indonesia: An Appropriate Response or A Threat to Human Rights?

In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of harsh censorship in several parts of the globe, notably Africa and Asia. In some cases, the shutdown may be justified, but in other cases, it is driven by the political interest of the regime. The research evaluates the Internet shutdowns in the post-2019 presidential election in Indonesia and during the social unrest in Papua Island. Using normative legal research, which uses statute, case, and comparative approach concludes that although Internet shutdowns in some situations are tolerable, their usage should be less frequent and more restricted. These explanations must be examined using legality, legitimacy, and proportionality principles to limit official arguments for Internet shutdowns because they infringe on human rights. However, since no enforcement mechanism exists, this is only a formality. The Indonesian government's decision to block Internet access to social media platforms during the 2019 presidential election riots and Papua social unrest is not an appropriate response because the decision violates the principles of declaration, proportionality, necessity, and legality, which must be respected even in an emergency situation. Furthermore, the ruling infringed on the civil rights to information controlled by Article 19 of the ICCPR as adopted by Law Number 12 of 2005. It also harmed several industries, including digital-based commerce. The research proffers alternative Internet policy choices for the government in response to the political escalation and social unrest