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BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – Constitutional Court held “The 4th Indonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium (also known as 2021 ICCIS) on Wednesday (15/9/2021) both virtually and on-site from Bandung, West Java. I Dewa Gede Palguna (Former Justice of 2003-2008 and 2015-2020) representing Law Faculty of Udayana University shared his presentation and stated that Indonesia could not be categorized as a secular country as the people live in diversity including the diversity of ethnicity, race, languages, cultures, customary beliefs, and religions. Beliefs and religions are the elements of the first clause of Pancasila which was “Belief in the One and Only Almighty God”. In other words, Pancasila as the country ideology was a representation of the freedom of religion given to the people to practice their religions and beliefs accordingly.

Presenting a paper titled “Court, Religion, and Constitutional Protection”, Palguna explained on the role of the Court in protecting the freedom of religon in Indonesia. As a democratic country, Indonesia protected the constitutional rights of the people through Article 29 Paragraph (2), Article 28E Paragraph (1), and Article 28I Paragraph (1) of the Constitution. “Indonesia in its Constitution upholds the law supremacy principles in regards to the freedom of religion as a part of human rights,” he said during the discussion session moderated by Helmi Kasim, Court’s Researcher.

Freedom of Religion and Gender Equality

Meanwhile, Tarun Arora from the Central University of Punjab, India presented a paper titled “Constitutional Reflection’s on Judicial Approach towards Revisiting Freedom of Religion and Gender Equality in Indian Context” in which according to his research, Arora analyzed the approaches done by the Indian Judiciary in defining the freedom of religion while referring to the gender equality.

In the speech she delivered during first session of the International Symposium, Arora further explained that Supreme Court of India took into consideration the meaning, scope and boundaries concerning the religious freedom including belieiving, practicing, and preaching a religion in the context of both freedom of religion and gender equality.

“On this matter, the Judiciary used the approach in which they linked the rights of equality and religious freedom to practice their religious activity. Therefore, the Judiciary finally declared that the practice of social exclusion of female worshippers based on the status was not in accordance with the spirit of constitutionality, law supremacy, and constitutional morality,” she said. The session continued with panel discussion and Court’s Researchers, Nallom Kurniawan and Abdul Ghoffar responded on the presentation.

On a side note, the international symposium would be held on 15-16 September 2021 using the hybrid method (virtual and on-site) in Bandung, West Java. Previously, the Court had hosted similar programs: 2017 ICCIS in Solo, 2018 ICCIS in Yogyakarta, and 2019 ICCIS in Bali. Due to the pandemic, the program was halted on 2020. ICCIS itself was a global academic forum held annually to discuss on the matters, ideas, and challenges of the constitutional law, human rights, and democracy. This year it focused on the religious issues in the context of constitutional rights. The Center of Case Research of the Constitutional Court opened the chance for academics to send out their articles and selected articles would publish in the Court’s journal called Constitutional Review.

Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 16, 2021 at 11:26 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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