Paper presented to the International Conference on Homelessness: a Global Perspective, New Delhi, India 9 - 13 January 2006.

1. Forced eviction,
homelessness, and the right
to housing in Indonesia
Tjahjono Rahardjo
Post Graduate Programme on Environment and Urban
Studies
Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang, Indonesia

2. Presentation Outline
• Forced Eviction: Past and Present
• Homelessness in Indonesia
• The Right to Adequate Housing
• Housing, the Kartu Tanda Penduduk
(KTP) and Exclusion of the Poor
• A Look at the Future

3. FORCED EVICTION: PAST
AND PRESENT
• Suharto’s new order (1968 – 1998),
focused on promoting economic
development and maintaining political
stability
• In practice this meant that:
– labour strikes bannned
– people forced to give up their lands and
homes without any (or very little)
compensations; many people became
homeless

4. FORCED EVICTION: PAST
AND PRESENT
• Today, forced evictions continue on a
massive scale, despite Indonesia
becoming more democratic since 1988
• In 2003 COHRE picked out Indonesia,
as the country with the highest
incidence of forced evictions (followed
by Guatemala and Serbia &
Montenegro)

5. FORCED EVICTION: PAST
AND PRESENT)
• 2000 – 2005:
– All over of Indonesia 95,470 urban
residents (19,000 households) evicted from
their homes. In addition, more people have
became homeless as a result of armed
conflicts and natural disasters
– In Jakarta alone more than 92,000 people
forcefully evicted; another 1.5 million
people in constant danger of being evicted

6. Despite its record in human
rights violation, i.e. the right to
adequate housing, the City of
Jakarta was awarded the
2005 UN Habitat Scroll of
Honour

7. FORCED EVICTION: PAST
AND PRESENT
• January 2005: The “Declaration of
Action on Developing Infrastructure and
Public Private Partnership” was signed
• In response to this declaration, the
Indonesian government promised to
facilitate investments by issuing new
regulations, among them the
controversial Peraturan Presiden
(President Regulation) 36/2005 on land
acquisition

8. FORCED EVICTION: PAST
AND PRESENT
• The President Regulation 36/2005:
– Makes it possible for the government to
arbitrarily and forcefully expropriate land, in
the name of “public interest”
– Is seen as benefiting large private
investors at the expense of the people
– Is considered harsher than the regulation
in force under Suharto

9. HOMELESSNESS IN
INDONESIA
• Indonesia does not have any official definition
for homelessness, but the 2000 national
census categorised people into two groups:
– those having a permanent place to stay
(mempunyai tempat tinggal tetap)
– those not having a permanent place to stay (tidak
mempunyai tempat tinggal tetap)
• included in the second category are residents
of “illegal” settlements (permukiman liar),
nomadic communities and boat crew
members, besides pavement dwellers

10. HOMELESSNESS IN
INDONESIA
• For the purpose of this paper homeless
people would be defined as adults (in
contrast to street children) who are
living permanently on the street
(tunawisma), and those who are living
in settlements categorised as “illegal”
(permukiman liar)

11. HOMELESSNESS IN
INDONESIA
• Tunawismas more or less share the same
characteristics of those living in permukiman
liars:
– Both work in the same informal occupations
such as rubbish collectors, itinerant vendors,
becak (pedicab) drivers, construction workers
and other unskilled occupation (some
tunawismas do make their living by begging)
– Both are subject to raids, but the more violent
evictions happen to squatters because usually
it involves the sensitive issue of land
ownership

12. THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE
HOUSING
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948):
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for
the health and well-being of himself and of his family,
including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the
event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old
age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his
control” (UDHR, article 25(1))

13. THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE
HOUSING
• The International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Right
(ICESCR,1966):
“The States parties to the present Covenant recognize
the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living
for himself and his family, including adequate food,
clothing and housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions. The State Parties will
take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this
right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance
of international co-cooperation based on free consent”
(ICESCR, article 11(1))

14. THE RIGHT TO ADEQUATE
HOUSING
• In Indonesia, Act 4/ 1992 on Housing and
Settlement acknowledges the right of all
citizens:
“to live in and/ or to have the use of and/ or to
own an adequate house located in a healthy,
safe, harmonious and orderly environment”
• According to the Act there are two aspects of
housing adequacy: physical and legal

15. HOUSING, THE KTP AND
EXLUSION OF THE POOR
• All Indonesians above the age of seventeen
should possess a Kartu Tanda Penduduk
(KTP) issued by their respective local
authorities.
• Yayasan Humana (2001) “A KTP is the sole
defining element for both inclusion and
identity”

16. HOUSING, THE KTP AND
EXLUSION OF THE POOR
• KTP is an all important document affecting all
aspects of life
• not having a KTP, besides being a serious
offense, means that one is not officially
recognised as a citizen of one’s city, therefore
having no access to public health care,
education, housing, finance, etc, and
vulnerable to eviction and expulsion

17. THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
“…… without a
home or a
permanent place to
no address
stay it would be
difficult for a
person’s formal
existence to be
recognised (to
have a KTP) ……”
(State Minister of
Popular Housing,
1994) no home
No access to:
• education
no KTP
• health care
• bank loans
• employment
• government subsidies, etc

18. A LOOK AT THE FUTURE
• Indonesia has ratified ICESCR in
September 2005 (but with reservation
towards article 1 and does not
recognise articles 20 to 25): half
hearted ratification?
• systematic and structural corruption is
still rampant in Indonesia: one of the ten
most corrupt countries in world

19. A LOOK AT THE FUTURE
• the Presidential Regulation 36/2005:
eviction given a stronger legal basis
• Indonesia’s economy not fully
recovered from the 1997 crisis: a large
number of people living in poverty

20. …more forced
evictions, more
homeless people
in the foreseeable
future…