Engaging Moral Business amidst Uncertainties: Fostering Democracy in the New Indonesia

Join us for a Human Rights and Legal Pluralism talk with O’Brien Fellow in Residence Pranoto Iskandar.

Abstract

Imagine that you live in a country where you can be imprisoned just because of whistling while you pray, or posting on Facebook that you’re no longer believe in God. What would you do if you think that’s wrong? How would you try to effect change? Where would you start? What if you then realize that you’re a nobody, but still want to do it? 

This talk is about how to make something of your idea, with scant resources, amidst the legal confusion that risks strangling a new democracy such as Indonesia. It explores the possibility of working against local laws, and obtaining badly needed support from the most unlikely allies. And it explores how and why ordinary people persist in seeking a better life in an imperfect world.

The speaker

Pranoto Iskandar is Founding Director of The Institute for Migrant Rights and Editor of the Institute’s scholarly publication program for the advancement of international and comparative legal studies. Currently, he is interested in developing a variety of academically rigorous and viable human rights driven proposals for law reform in the area of immigration and constitutional laws in the midst of the domestic entrenchment of international and foreign laws in non-liberal polities.