THE WAIT THAT KILLS HOPE: Monitoring Report on Women Refugees in Three Regions: The Urgent Need to Reform Indonesia's Refugee Policy

Komnas Perempuan, as the National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) with a specific mandate to eliminate violence against women, presents this monitoring report against a backdrop of critical legal and humanitarian gaps. While Indonesia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, it has a long history of hosting refugees, with the UNHCR marking its 45th year in the country in 2024. The current refugee population, recorded at 12,295 individuals as of December 2023, is predominantly from Afghanistan, with women constituting 28%.

The primary legal instrument governing refugees in Indonesia is Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 125 of 2016 on the Handling of Refugees. However, this regulation is fundamentally flawed: it lacks a gender perspective and fails to address the specific needs and vulnerabilities of refugee women, including protection from and response to gender-based violence (GBV). Furthermore, Indonesia’s status as a State Party to core human rights treaties—including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention Against Torture (CAT)—creates binding obligations. These obligations extend to all individuals within its jurisdiction, including refugees.

This monitoring was prompted by several factors: annual complaints received by Komnas Perempuan concerning refugee women; emphatic recommendations from UN human rights committees (including the Human Rights Committee and the CEDAW Committee) urging Indonesia to improve refugees’ access to basic rights and to reconsider ratifying the 1951 Convention; and the overarching mandate of Komnas Perempuan to ensure the state prevents violence against all women within its territory. The report’s title, The Wait that Kills Hope, encapsulates the core crisis: an indefinite, prolonged, and uncertain resettlement process that inflicts severe psychological and physical suffering, constituting ill-treatment and a denial of fundamental human rights.