The 1965 tragedy in Indonesia has caused millions of people murdered, disappeared, tortured, stigmatized, and stripped of their rights to social security. For years, communities of 65′ victims and civil society organizations have been working to gain government recognition as well as acknowledgement of the gross human rights violations in Indonesia and to make sure the victims entitled to reparations. This hard work has started to pay off, but the increasingly limited civic spaces has caused these achievements to gradually disappear.

Covid-19 pandemic has continued to limit the civic space in Indonesia. It is increasingly more difficult for civil society to perform advocacy work where the government policies on social restriction are complicating the process. This pandemic has also made it difficult for the victims to access social assistance as there are fewer accompaniers to assist due to concerns of transmitting or contracting the virus, closed social service center, or limited working hours and limited number of services.

We understand, there is an urgent need for civil society to strengthen the movement and to reclaim civic spaces as well as expanding it by connecting and organizing communities of young people to become leaders and center of human rights work in the perspective of helping victims of past human rights violations getting their rights of reparation and through VOICE program, IKa, Sekber ‘65 and PBH Nusra organizations will respond this vision by implementing five main activities.

First, claiming economic, socio-cultural rights of victims of past gross human rights violations, and to be able to ensure this work, SEKBER ‘65 and PBH Nusra will update data of the victims and their families, classified them based on their current living conditions. This information will be used in making sure the victims can access the nearest social security support system. Data collection will be carried out by trained accompaniers.
Second, through public campaigns designed, led, and run by young people, social acceptance of victims of past gross human rights violations will be expanding. These groups of young people work with spirits of volunteerism and a comprehensive understanding of human rights and are reinforced by national youth conferences and regional youth community meetings.
Third, Consortium members ensure that the fulfillment of economic, socio-cultural rights of victims of past human rights violations is included in the form of regional regulations. With the formation of a Regional Commission in charge of establishing a working program, ensuring that the implementation of the Regional Regulation is carried out accordingly.
Fourth, a collaboration between youths and victims in creating content materials for social media campaigns, organizing art and cultural events such as Ketoprak, fashion shows, and held public fundraising events together will fill empty civic spaces and continue to expand them.
Fifth, organizational sustainability is very important to continue building the civil society movement in Indonesia. And through the VOICE program, the capacity of civil society organizations will continue to be improved to ensure that organizational resources remain to do their works which is accountable to the public.

he “Better Together ” Joint Campaign  

“In 1965 they were young, now they are old.”  

This quote represents the focus of the Better Together Program, a program which advocates for the fulfilment of the rights of victims of serious human rights violations while also encouraging young people to be involved in the recovery of victims.  

To date, there persists a pervasive reluctance in Indonesia to openly address historical human rights violations. However, for those of us who carry out humanitarian work, supporting restorative justice for the victims of past serious human rights violations is vital in restoring their rights and reducing their marginalization in society . However, humanitarian organizations face many obstacles in achieving these goals.  

The challenges in launching the “Better Together” social media campaign were apparent from the beginning. Our partner organizations were hesitant to join us in this campaign as they were unsure if they could be consistent in managing their social media posts. Joint campaigns are a challenge as they require consistent, close cooperation with our partners. As this project progressed, we faced the challenge of bridging the gap between our continuous campaign efforts and our partners’ unfamiliarity with consistent social media management. Despite this initial hurdle, we collectively sought ways to integrate social media campaigns into our shared goals for the program.  

With subsequent meetings and discussions, we began to explore potential campaign themes and content that would resonate with our target audience. The partner expressed concerns about their team’s limited capacity to maintain an active social media presence, highlighting the need for additional support and resources.  

In response, we collaborated on a strategy that included training sessions and resources dedicated to enhancing the partner’s social media capabilities. This approach aimed to empower them with the necessary skills to manage campaigns effectively and consistently. It became evident that providing targeted support in areas of weakness could contribute significantly to the overall success of the campaign. As we moved forward, the campaign evolved from a mere concept to a tangible initiative with a defined roadmap for success. 

The challenges encountered during the initial stages of the campaign taught us valuable lessons about adaptability and understanding the diverse needs of organizations that we partner with. Despite the hurdles, the commitment to promoting the rights of elderly survivors of human rights violations remained a driving force, fostering a spirit of resilience and determination among all involved parties. The joint efforts aimed not only at raising awareness of human rights abuses but also at creating a lasting impact on the lives of those affected by past atrocities.  

The first campaign remains vivid in our memory. It was October 2021 when we agreed to launch a joint campaign with Sekber’65 in Solo and PBH Nusra in East Nusa Tenggara (ENT). Our meetings were conducted via Zoom, where we shared ideas but struggled to come up with content or ideas for the campaign. Consequently, our initial Zoom meeting only confirmed the next meeting date, making it perhaps the shortest Zoom meeting we’ve ever had. Nevertheless, it served as a valuable learning experience for mutual understanding of each organization’s activities and ideas.  

Debates often arose over issues such as inappropriate captions or logos that were not visible due to dominating backgrounds, rendering the logo colors indistinguishable. Another challenge emerged when ideas ran dry for creating campaign materials, leading to concerns about the campaign’s feasibility. While these may seem trivial, they become significant issues when faced with agreed-upon deadlines.  

From the challenges mentioned, a crucial lesson we learned was related to campaign planning. We decided to establish broad monthly themes, which were then broken down into smaller and more detailed themes tailored to the issues in each region. However, we again faced issues with the implementation of this work plan. We found a solution by participating in external training/webinars to enhance our capacity. Despite the difficulties we faced, we persisted in executing these solutions, while facing challenges such as problematic internet connections during design sessions, creating social media accounts (Instagram, TikTok etc), time zone differences, volunteers with busy schedules, and even the absence of internet in some locations.  

We aimed to release at least one social media post a week relating to the campaign. These included short-form content like Instagram reels, as well as podcast episodes, articles and videos. With training from Indonesia Inklusi, we were able to enhance our skills in social media content creation and writing.  

In the first year of the campaign, our work began to produce the results that we were hoping for. For example, we surpassed a campaign goal of reaching 5,000 followers on our Instagram account.  

As the second year of the campaign unfolded, the positive changes became more apparent, both in terms of content and the emergence of tangible actions from members of the public who followed the campaign, many of whom became supporters. This was evident at one of IKa’s partner organizations, Sekber’65 had its office visited by a group of students from various universities as a part of a summer school initiative. Organized by supporters of our campaign, this initiative attracted participants from ten universities around the globe, including Kenya, China, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.  

“Thank you IKa for actively assisting in the joint campaign. This is a great result because we received a visit from summer school students, and we were able to share with them about the 1965 political violence and human rights abuses” expressed one of the Sekber’65 officials to our team.  

The end of the campaign did not lead us to stop our efforts on raising awareness of these issues. On the contrary, the success of the campaign fueled our enthusiasm and belief that our activism in raising awareness of human rights abuses and assisting others would continue to yield positive results.