Luthfi Widagdo Eddyono as Moderator and Law Faculty Dean M. Ali Safa’at during the 3rd session panel discussion of the 4th ICCIS on Monday, 15/9/21. Photo: PR/Ilham

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Wednesday, September 15, 2021 | 16:05 WIB

BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – Constitutional Court held “The 4th Indonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium (also known as 2021 ICCIS) wich rose the theme of “Constitutional Court, Religion, and Constitutional Rights Protection” on Wednesday (15/9/2021) both virtually and on-site from Bandung, West Java. In one of the session, Justice of the Constitutional Court of Turkey, Engin Yildirim delivered his speech on the paper titled “Freedom of Religion, Secularism and the Turkish Constitutional Court” whereas Law Faculty Dean of Brawijaya University shared about “The Role of the Indonesian Constitutional Court on Determining the Differentiation and Relationship Between State and Religion”.

Yildirim started by stating that secularism is directly linked to the principles contained in the Turkish Constitution both in the Preamble and several articles of the Constitution. Since 1937, the meaning, content, and implementation of secularism had been in dispute between the politicians and law enforcers in Turkey, especially in the context of religious freedom. He further narrated several cases related to the religious freedom filed to the Constitutional Court throughout the years.

Turkish Constitutional Court had ruled over 27 decision on individual cases in the span of 9 years (2012 until June 2021) and 121 decisions on the cases of constitutional review since 1962 until June 2021 which all were related to the religious freedom. These cases included several religious issues such as the headcover (hijab) ban worn in university and for government officers, mandatory religious courses in elementary and middle schools, religious identity in the national ID Card, high volume of adzan (calls to prayer in Islam), and dismissal of Islamic political parties.

“The development of these cases shown that the judiciary had experienced a substantial transformation in their approach to the cases related to religious freedom in the last few years. Initially, militant secularist only acknowledged religious expression in a limited scope such as higher education or government officers. It later changed to the point where religious freedom was given a much more open space in the public domain,” he said.  

Indonesian Constitutional Court and Differentiation of Country and Religion

On the same occasion, Law Faculty Dean of Brawijaya University M. Ali Safa’at shared his thought on the topic of “The Role of the Indonesian Constitutional Court on Determining the Differentiation and Relationship Between State and Religion” in which he mentioned that when it came to the law of the country, then religion would fall into the secular area so that the country could choose or limit the religious law as seen in the practice of restricting the authority of the Religious Court (a court dealing with certain religious matters), polygamy restriction, and rulings on zakat (charity obligation for certain people with certain condition).

“The authority of the country to restrict the religious law which had been established as the country law was backed up by the Decision of the Constitutional Court in the judicial review of Marriage Laws, Religious Court Laws, and Zakat Rulings Laws. That the Decision of the Constitutional Court had sharpened the difference and relation between a country and religion which should be based on Pancasila as the manifestation of mutual symbiosis for both,” he said during the session attended by with 28 speakers from Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Palestine, Singapore, Turkey, and Vietnam presenting their papers and was widely attended by participants through Zoom application.

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: Tiara Agustina
Translator: WA

Translation uploaded on Sept 16, 2021 

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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