DTP alumna Anis Hidayah is the Chair of Komnas HAM, Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission. In this leadership position, Anis is responsible for guiding the Commission’s strategic direction, representing it both domestically and internationally, and overseeing investigations and recommendations on human rights violations across Indonesia.
Before being appointed to Komnas HAM, Anis dedicated more than two decades to defending the rights of Indonesia’s migrant workers, whose rights had long been neglected and denied.
She was the Founding Executive Director of Jakarta based NGO Migrant CARE, and in collaboration with the New York based Human Rights Watch, she documented how Indonesian female domestic workers in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait were severely exploited and abused.
In addition to revealing abuses, through Migrant CARE, Anis helped build a broad network of Indonesian migrants’ rights advocates to raise the profile of the abuses suffered by these workers. She organised countless protests, generated media coverage, influenced Indonesia’s top policy makers, and advocated successfully for Indonesia to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers, and increased legal protections. She has also led protests against the death penalty – which Indonesian migrant workers are at risk of in some destination countries.
Anis participated in DTP’s first regional program with Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) on Migrant Workers’ Rights in Jakarta in 2004. Anis credits the Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) for upskilling her in the early days of her career.
“At that time participating in DTP was a big opportunity for me. I was only five years into activism, and DTP gave me not only knowledge and perspective but also long-lasting networks. Even today, I am in touch with DTP’s Executive Director, Patrick and some fellow alumni which shows the value of DTP to me.”
Anis strongly believes that programs like DTP are crucial to strengthening the capacity of civil society in Indonesia. She mentions that several current commissioners and staff at Komnas HAM are also DTP alumni.
“This shows the strength and impact of DTP” .
When asked why she had dedicated much of her adult life in defending the rights of the migrant workers, Anis said that when she was a child, in a remote village in Bojonegoro East Java, she always played with children whose parents had gone abroad to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. Anis saw how migrant workers were exploited. That lived experience became the foundation for a lifelong commitment for Anis to defend the vulnerable.
“I was born in a very small and remote village,” she recalls, “and saw how poor people had very limited access to their rights and very little attention from the state.”
Her experience is invaluable to her work today at Komnas HAM:
“Indonesia is a large country with a huge population and very complex human rights problems.”
Each year, Komnas HAM receives between 2,000 and 5,000 reports of human rights violations. These span a wide range—from agrarian conflicts and labor rights to civil and political freedoms like freedom of expression and religion. The greatest challenge, she says, lies in ensuring government agencies, particularly the police, military, and local authorities, follow through on the Commission’s recommendations.
Anis is focused on maximising her impact.
“I carry a big responsibility. My goal is to push the Indonesian government to implement human rights better… My vision,” she says, “is to defend vulnerable groups and ensure that no one is left behind.”
(This first DTP/MFA program was made possible in 2004 with funding from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ILO and the Myer Foundation of Australia.)
