By Adeline Tibakweitira
CILC has reconnected with the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights and the Directorate General of Legislation (DGL) after a period of four years. Since CILC delivered the training in 2011, the Directorate General of Legislation has striven to acquire support for capacity building of its legislative lawyers from the Netherlands. Only in September 2016 when NUFFIC-Neso approved the proposal for delivery of the Capacity Building in Legal Processes and Legislative Drafting Tailor Made Training (TMT) were the doors finally re-opened for collaboration.
Between 2016-2017, the project is to be implemented through two training courses in The Hague and Jakarta. The first training has taken place in November 2016 where sixteen legislative lawyers from the DGL were trained for three weeks in The Hague. The training was made possible with the collaboration of the Dutch partners, including the Academy for Legislation, the Ministry of Security and Justice, the Second Chambers, the Council of the State, the Van Vollenhoven Institute, and the Free University Amsterdam. During the training, the participants were introduced to the legal system and the legislative processes in the Netherlands.
The StudNed aim and results
The training course in the Netherlands aimed to equip the legislative lawyers of DGL with knowledge and skills necessary to perform their duties well. In order to fulfil the diversified needs of the legislative lawyers entrusted with different roles within the department, such as drafting of bills, harmonizing laws and regulations, planning and monitoring of legislation derived from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights and other regulatory bodies, the training covered a broad range of topics, including introduction to the Dutch legal system, tools and resources used by legislative lawyers in the Netherlands, and an integrated assessment framework. Moreover, the participants received some tools that are used by Dutch legislative lawyers to test the enforceability and impact of legislation, such as the Table of 11 and were given an opportunity to address the challenges facing the DGL, such as balancing the interests of different departments and ministries engaged in the legislative process and determining the hierarchy of laws which remains ambiguous in Indonesia. A revision of the Law on Legislation Making (Law Number 12 of 2011) is being made in order to address some of these challenges. A comprehensive action plan and recommendations for the amendment of Law No 12/2011 has been one of the significant results of this training course.
Visits to Dutch legal Institutions
The training in the Netherlands has been completed with visits to the Dutch legal institutions, including the Ministry Security and Justice, the Second Chambers and the Council of State. In addition to the exchange of information about the specific roles of the Dutch legal institutions in the legislative process, the discussions at the Ministry of Security and Justice about the revision of the Dutch criminal code and legal aid law and digitization of civil proceeding were very enlightening for participants. They proved how complex each process can be, how important it is to balance different interests and provided insight into tackling a large reform project such as the amendment of criminal procedure code.
Extra curricula
In addition to the training activities, participants also had an opportunity to socialize together and partake in social visits. The participants were eager to travel to Paris and Brussels to explore other European cities and also visited Volendam and Zaandam to learn more about typical Dutch culture.
Continued interest of Indonesia to collaborate with the Netherlands
From 14th-18th November the trainees enjoyed a visit of the Director General of Legislation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in Indonesia. The Director General and his delegation attended the last week of the training course in order to share their experiences, monitor the progress of the project and engage in discussions concerning revision of the law no. 12/2011. This visit established collaboration between the Indonesian DGL and their counterpart in the Netherlands. The Directorate General expressed desire to explore opportunities to establish an Indonesian Academy for Legislation and apply best practices from the Dutch legal system. He further expressed his desire to strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Security and Justice and foster exchange of knowledge and experience between the two legal institutions.
