 |
| (C) Amnesty International |
Introduction
Amnesty International (AI) is a
global movement on human rights issues and founded in 1961 in London. According
to Amnesty International (AI), the death penalty is wrong and it’s a denial of
human rights as already stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
article (3) that “everyone has the right
to life, liberty and the security of person” (AI 2015; OHCHR 2015).
Since 1977, AI has been campaigning
“End the Death Penalty” (EDP) when only 16 countries has abolished the capital
punishment and now the number has increased to 140 countries or almost
two-thirds of countries in the world. In Indonesia, AI has been working to
campaign EDP since 1980s (AI 2015). Moreover, Indonesia is among the countries
that are still practicing the death penalty for serious crimes such as: seriously
aggravated murder, drug trafficking offences and terrorism (WCADP 2013).
To achieve their goal, AI does
not have specific time frame. It stated by Peter Benenson, AI founder that: “Only when
the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s
people, will our work be done” (AI 2015).
Stakeholders
and interest groups involved
Stakeholders are very important
to AI because they are accountable to their stakeholders (AI 2010). In general,
AI’s stakeholders include: peoples and ecosystem who need the protection,
member and supporters, staff and volunteers, organisation and individual that
contribute to AI, partner organisation both governmental and non-governmental,
regulatory bodies, media, and general public (AI 2010).
It is interesting to note that governments (abolitionist
countries) also become part of AI’s stakeholders. Often, several abolitionist governments
– with the lobby of AI - also take part to push Indonesian government to
abolish the death penalty. For instance Australia and the UK (BBC: 2015; AI
2015: 2).
Even though AI has international networks to pursue
their goal, unfortunately, in Indonesia, AI does not have detailed maps which
clearly state their stakeholders. In addition, AI mostly work in coordination
with Koalisi Anti Hukuman Mati (HATI
Coalition) – which consists of
several human rights NGOs – as they do not have branch office or licence to
operate in Indonesia.
Evidence-based
policy
One of the strengths of AI
campaign is the use of evidence-based policy (Nutley, Walter and Davies 2002:
5) in their advocacy, lobby and campaign. AI believes that policy change on
human rights starts with the facts and research is the first step must be taken
before advocacy, lobbying, campaign and action (AI 2015). Nutley, Davis and Walter (2002: 2) state that
there are many forms of evidence such as: statistics, stakeholder consultation,
policy evaluation, published research, economic and statistical modelling,
expert knowledge and even the internet.
In campaigning EDP in Indonesia,
AI used a number of evidence such as statistics which show that death penalty
is disappearing around the world, facts that death penalty does not deter
criminals, as well as experts’ views that support the EDP (AI 2012). In 2015,
AI Australia organised #KeepHopeAlive campaign and used online and paper
petition addressed to Indonesian President to support EDP and ask clemency for Duo-Bali Nine, Sukumaran and Chan (AI
Australia 2015; SkyNews 2015).
The
Kingdon’s policy windows
Using Kingdon’s Policy Windows on
the three important streams (problems, policies and politics) to bring issues
onto government agenda (Howlett, Ramesh and Perl 2009: 103-104), we can
identify how the issue of death penalty played in these streams. In the problem
stream, the issue of death penalty becomes problem for Indonesian Government when
their citizens (360 Indonesian migrant workers) faced death penalty in Saudi
Arabia and Malaysia (SkyNews 2015).
In the policy stream, Indonesia
Constitutional Law acknowledges that right to life is a “non-derogable rights” therefore cannot be limited in any circumstances (INHRC 2013: 8). Moreover, AI
and their counterparts in Indonesia also have examined the problems and
proposed solutions as policy options on how to end the death penalty with
several stages such as: halt the
executions, clemency, take death penalty off for all crimes and commuted to
prison sentences (AI 2014).
While in the political stream,
several factors need to be considered such as: national mood, pressure from
interest groups and administrative or legislative turnover (Howlett, Ramesh and
Perl 2009: 103). International pressure from Australia, Brazil, and the
Netherlands to Indonesia (Lowy Institute 2015) and the new elected government
that perceived as a “New Hope” (Times 2014) are among the important factors to
the agenda of EDP in Indonesia.
Policy
Windows: Open and Close
Despite several open windows
above, several factors also influenced the close of policy windows which caused
by dynamic interaction in the three streams (Howlett, Ramesh and Perl 2009:
103) and also the structured interaction of policy; that policy is also about
competing agenda of other players (Colebatch 2009: 26).
First, the war against massive
and chronic corruption as well as drug trafficking in Indonesia demands death
penalty for the punishment. Second, in the case of AI’s campaign and advocacy
to Indonesian president in early 2015 in order to give clemency for duo Bali-nine, polling showed that majority
(62%) of Australian support the death penalty for drug traffickers in Indonesia
(Roy Morgan 2015). These different opinions give bad influence on the
importance of perception of problem as public issue (Howlett, Ramesh and Perl
2009: 103). Third, the new government influenced by the outsider groups to
retain the policy on death penalty for serious crimes. This is in line with the
aims of policy work: that policy process is concerned with stability and change
(Colebatch 2008: 134) and this also explains the double standard of Indonesian
government in responding to death penalty (News 2013).
Possible
ways forward to advance the campaign
Myers (2005: 2) gives important
framework on stakeholder power analysis in identifying key actors need to be approached
and influenced. To improve the impact on their campaign, AI (directly or
through their networks) also needs to approach the outsider groups as they
mostly have high power and high potential (Myers 2005: 11) to influence policy and
provide them strong facts/evidence supporting the idea of EDP. In addition, creating
conditions for inclusive and quality multi-stakeholders dialogue (Myers 2005:
5) is also important to be conducted as the debate on death penalty often
conducted in an exclusive and participated by very limited actors.
AI also needs to understand the
real policy window from the perspective of Indonesian government and people
because policy is also about social construction by recognising and making the
problem as a collective concern of the society (Colebatch 2009: 24). The use of
duo-Bali nine issues for the policy
window did not work as it was not the problem of Indonesian government but the
problem of Australian Government because at the same time, the problem from the
perspective of Indonesian Government is a drug crisis that created 4.5 million
drug addicts and kills 50 people per day (Fealy 2015).
The best policy window from the
perspective of Indonesian Government is the fact that a number of Indonesian
migrant workers faced death penalty overseas and Indonesia needs international
support to stop the execution (Earle 2015). This is in line with the argument
given by Howlett and Ramesh (2003: 120-121) that recognising the problem for
policy makers is important determinants in setting up the agenda.
Written by: Agung Wasono
(September 2015)
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