Purwanti or Ipung talks about people with disability who face challenges when accessing legal aid services and about legal aid for people with disability and other vulnerable groups, during a Thematic Discussion No-7 on Inclusion organised by SIGAB, on Tuesday (29/7), with the title “Fulfilling and Expanding Outreach of Legal Aid Services and Inclusive Legal Protection for People with Disability in Indonesia.
Purwanti says that legal aid for poor people and people with disability is not part of the criteria because there is stipulation for a letter confirming that the person is poor. She helps people with disability who struggle to understand the letter. When people with disability are the perpetrators, and this person goes to jail, then the family will be reluctant to help.
Second, Law on Legal Aid focuses on perpetrator(s). This is despite the fact that victims also need legal aid. There are ways for consultation and counselling re. Legal aid, but the budget would be much different when people with disability are the perpetrators.
Third, the government budget is eight million per case. Is this just for litigation or does it cover non-litigation as well, for example those related to accessibility and adequate accommodation in accessing legal aid. There is no specific details yet.
Fourth, with regards to accessibility where people with disability do not yet have the ability to get access, for example people with disability who live in remote areas or who are not aware that they are victims.
Ketika pelayanan bantuan hukum di kelurahan belum ada mekanismenya seperti apa, atau layanan seperti apa, sehingga ada perdamaian di situ. Kasus perkosaan diperdamaikan, termasuk kasus penganiayaan dan pemasungan. Ketakterjangkauan ini semestinya tidak menghilangkan keadilan.
Fifth, the Ministry of Law - in this case is the legal aid unit - being facilitated in developing standard for legal aid. Because there is not yet a mechanism or standard or classification with regard to cases that are resolved/addressed through Restorative Justice (RJ) for example.
Sixth, legal aid organisations doe not have policies regarding how to provide accompaniment and the method to provide accompaniment, as well as facilities to make it easy for people with disability to access their services.
Seventh, people with disability are deemed incapable legal subject and pose challenges to those who accompany them.
There is then a question, what if it is difficult to get a letter confirming that a person is poor? Because if a person has a social security but not classified as poor, then it would be difficult. It would be even more complicated in cases where there are differences in different areas.
The expectation is to make sure that people with disability who are classified as powerless get access to legal aid. Then there should be disability organisations to accompany them.
Second, there are policies to address access to legal aid although within these policies may not mention disability criteria as a requirement to get access.
Third, that people with disability are accepted at all levels in community, in government structures and organisations. In essence, people with disability must enjoy supports from all parties.
Fourth, regarding budget. There are active and progressive disability communities. They cam provide supports, and they can give information, offering support to networks, and offering inputs on policies and on people with disability facing legal issues.
Fifth, there is law articulating the how to provide legal aid, including Law No. 18 Year 2003 on Lawyers, Law on Judges’ Authority, Law on Court, Law on Religious Court, Administrative Law, Law No. 11 Year 2009 on Social Welfare, Law No. 8 Year 2016, Law No. 16 Year 2011 regarding access provision despite lacking in specificity about disability.
Sixth, this also relates to the legal justification for legal aid with no stipulation regarding diversity of vulnerable groups. It relates to above policies, providing legal aid services although there is not yet disability requirement when accessing legal aid provided by the government.
Seventh, provincial and district governments have the obligation to provide supports to people with disability during examination and law enforcement processes, rights in civil and criminal cases as articulated in the law. This guarantee is about legal aid to people with disability and government regulation No. 39 Year 2020 on Social Organisations points 2 and 3 mention that in addition to the law enforcement agencies as articulated in point 2, other organisations that are relevant to the court processes have the obligation to provide adequate accommodation as stipulated in point 3 - including State detention facilities, temporary child placement agency, community organisations, special child development agencies, correctional facilities, lawyers organisations, and social welfare organisations.
In article 13 point 1 lawyer organisation(s) make(s), develop(s) standard for legal services for people with disability. In addition to making and developing standard for legal aid for people with disability as referred to in point 1, lawyers have the obligation to provide legal aid to people with disability in court as stipulated by the law. Lawyer organisation(s) monitor the legal aid as referred above.
Then, article 14 re. Law enforcement agencies and article 12, and article 13 re. Lawyers organisation incorporate people with disability organisation(s) and/or community organisation(s) working for people with disability allowing them to participate in preparing and developing examination standard of people with disability. This is relevant with the idea of meaningful community participation.
Finally, Purwanti spells out a number of recommendations:
1. Disability becomes key criteria to get access to legal aid for people with disability faced with legal issues.
2. Very relevant when disability becomes a criteria to get access, and policies re. Legal aid services for people with disability Sangat relevan ketika difabel sebagai kriteria untuk mendapatkan akses, kemudian kebijakan tentang layanan bantuan hukum bagi difabel yang berhadapan dengan hukum.
3. Meaningful participation of people with disability with regards to evaluation and accountability of policies re. services.
4. Widening the outreach of legal aid services, who could access the services, geography and resources. It will be very interesting to start from village-level awareness and making legal aid services network outreach to broader level - I.e. district and provincial networking.
5. Synergy and all the needs associated with the network.
6. Accessibility and adequate accommodation.
7. Budgeting mechanism. This is related to budget streamlining, budget cut, and how people with disability get access in sub-national levels. (Ast)
