Impact of Budget Efficiency, Komnas HAM Struggles to Follow Up on 5,300 Public Complaints

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Under normal conditions, the budget of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is already smaller compared to other ministries or institutions. With a budget efficiency of around 54 percent, Komnas HAM is experiencing difficulties in following up on 5,300 public complaints that come in every year related to alleged human rights violations in Indonesia.

Komnas HAM Commissioner Anis Hidayah stated that the institution's budget has been reduced by approximately 54 percent, which has impacted its ability to fully carry out its legal mandate.

"Based on the law, there are four mandates of the National Human Rights Commission, namely case monitoring, mediation, human rights studies, and human rights education for the community. These programs are very unlikely to be implemented optimally due to budget efficiency," said Anis, quoted on Wednesday (2/5/2025).

Anis mentioned that even under normal conditions, the budget for Komnas HAM is already small compared to other ministries or institutions. This budget has further decreased after efficiency measures were implemented. "After 31 years of existence, Komnas HAM should receive adequate budget support to carry out its mandate related to human rights violation cases," he said.

With a small program budget, of course not all cases can be followed up.

Based on the 2025 National Budget (APBN), the budget for the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) is IDR 112 billion. After an efficiency reduction of 54 percent, the budget becomes approximately IDR 60 billion.

This cut is carried out based on Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 1 of 2025 signed on January 22, 2025. In the Inpres, President Prabowo instructed ministries, agencies, and local governments to streamline the state budget by up to IDR 306.69 trillion.

According to Anis, with the efficiency measures in place, the remaining budget is mostly only sufficient for employee salaries and daily operations. "There is very little left for programs," he said.

According to Anis, of the four main mandates of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), monitoring and mediation have a larger budget allocation compared to human rights studies and education. However, this does not mean that human rights studies and education programs are not important, as Komnas HAM regularly provides training for the military (TNI), police (Polri), and local government officials regarding human rights protection efforts.

He also stressed that the budget constraints would impact the effectiveness of handling the 5,300 reports of alleged human rights violations in Indonesia received by Komnas HAM each year. "With a small program budget, of course not all cases can be followed up," he said.

Currently, Komnas HAM is investigating several cases of alleged human rights violations. For example, the case of the sea fence in Tangerang, Banten, which harmed fishermen, as well as the shooting of Indonesian migrant workers (PMI).

Anis said that the public should have known about the government's budget efficiency that had been announced by the Ministry of Finance for 2025. However, he still wanted to apologize to the Indonesian people, especially victims of human rights violations, because this budget limitation made Komnas HAM unable to respond to complaints by going directly to the field or conducting a comprehensive study.

With a smaller budget and greater efficiency, Komnas HAM faces major challenges in carrying out its duties. He hopes the government will provide affirmation to institutions engaged in human rights so that public complaint services can continue to run optimally.

Currently, Komnas HAM only has a budget of around Rp 1 billion to finance its four mandates. The institution is currently consolidating and formulating strategies so that it can continue to carry out its functions amidst existing limitations.