The principle of equality is a primary principle of human rights. Human rights are
for everyone – as much for people living in poverty and social isolation as for the
visible and articulate. By international law, the principle of non-discrimination
prohibits discrimination in the enjoyment of human rights, on any ground, such as
race, skin colour, gender, language, religion, politics or other opinion, national or
social origins, property, birth or other status. The term ‘or other status’ might include
personal circumstances, occupation, lifestyle, sexual orientation or health status.
The Second Amendment forbids discrimination on the basis of gender, race,
disability, language or social status. It stipulates equal rights and obligations for all
citizens, both native and naturalised. Article 28 I( 2 ) stipulates, ‘Each person has the
right to be free from discriminatory treatment on any grounds and has the right to
obtain protection from such discriminatory treatment.’ Article 28 D( 1 ) states, ‘Each
person has the right to the recognition, the security, the protection and the certainty
of just laws and equal treatment before the law.’ This article guarantees the right to
equal treatment ‘before the law’ and to the protection of human rights and
freedoms, without discrimination.
Under Article 28 D( 2 ), anyone, without discrimination, has the right to work and
to receive just and appropriate rewards and treatment in their working relation-
ships. Moreover, the members of the MPR retained Article 27 of the original 1945
constitution. This article clearly guarantees the right to equality by stating, ‘All
citizens have equal status before the law and in government and shall abide by the
law and the government without any exception.’
In order to see whether the equality provisions in the Second Amendment
provide full protection of equality rights, it is necessary to examine religious
liberties. Under the title ‘Religion’, Article 29 of the Indonesian constitution
provides to ‘all persons the right to worship according to his or her own religion
or belief’, and states that ‘the State is based upon belief in the one supreme God’.
The text actually does not refer to any particular belief. The language used in this
Article 29 postulates a universal value. In this sense, Gary Bell explains that
even though the Republic of Indonesia ‘is based on the belief in the One
and Only God’, freedom of religion is protected and Islam, the religion
of the majority, has no special constitutional status. The secular nature
of the State can be seen again as an effort at unity: there is no minority
religion in law if there is no recognition of the majority religion by the
law. Religion becomes an individual matter and all Indonesian indi-
viduals are treated equally. One could therefore say that the way the
constitution mentions religious freedom without mentioning Islam
is meant to afford constitutional protection to religious minorities.^24
I will return to the issue of religious freedom later.
(^24) Ibid., 792.