Struggling for justice in post-authoritarian states: human rights protest in Indonesia

Abstract

Protests can play a crucial role in contributing to social change. In many countries that have transitioned from authoritarian to more democratic forms of governance, protests have demanded accountability for human rights crimes. This article focuses on Indonesia’s longest-running human rights protest, Kamisan. This protest is contrasted with one of the most recognisable human rights protests internationally–the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina–on which Kamisan was based. The article asks why these similar protest movements have had vastly different impacts–whereas the protest of the Mothers has generated human rights reform, this remains elusive in Indonesia. The article uses an in..