President of the Constitutional Court of Turkey, Zuhtu Arslan shared about the Court’s Role in protecting and enforcing democracy on Thursday (16/9) during the 2nd Conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/ Observer States (J-OIC Conference) in Bandung, West Java.
Thursday, 16 September 2021 | 17:53 WIB
BANDUNG, PUBLIC RELATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - The 2nd Conference of the Judicial Conference of Constitutional and Supreme Courts/Councils of the OIC Member States/ Observer States (J-OIC Conference) in Bandung, West Java was started with the presentations of 10 (ten) speakers from different countries, namely Turkey, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Thailand, and Mozambique. The Conference was hosted by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia on September 15-17, 2021 using the hybrid method (combining both online and on-site participation) under the main theme “Human Rights and Constitutionalism: The Contribution of Judiciary in Moslem Countries”. The Conference was attended by 32 countries, Turkey and Pakistan attended on-site and 30 others attended virtually.
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia was represented by Justice Wahiduddin Adams sharing about the role of religious courts in national life. Indonesia was a muslim-majority country, therefore Islam influenced the way the Indonesia perceived religious values. However, it did not mean that the approach taken was a domineering one, rather it was a moderating one.
“Indonesian muslims were well aware that the right approach was by being the mercy of the world and mankind (rahmatan lil’alamin). Becoming a mercy meant that muslim did not only act based on the muslim community alone. However, how each act and activity would be beneficial for others and all,” said Justice Adams delivering his speech in Arabic.
He further explained that some family matters of Muslim family such as divorce, inheritance, and will after death were under the authority of religous courts. Therefore, religious courts were often associated as family courts. As the sharia financial institutions grew rapidly, the authority of religious courts expanded further into the matters of sharia economics. In Aceh, for example, the government also opened the possibility of the jinayat law specifically in the Province to accommodate the request of the society.
In the Constitutional Court’s Decisions, he explained that there were several cases of constitutional review in regards to the Government’s policy related to sharia fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the authorities of the religious courts. For example, the Decision on the review of Religious Court Law in which the petitioner plead the Court to expand the authority of religious courts by inserting criminal cases as part of its jurisdictions.
“The Constitutional Court refused the petition based on the belief that “.... Indonesia was not a country based on a single religion, but Indonesia was also not a secular country without any regards to religion and leaving the religious matters fully to the individuals and society,” he said.
Enforcing Democracy in Turkey
Meanwhile, the President of the Constitutional Court of Turkey, Zuhtu Arslan explained the role of the Court in protecting and enforcing democracy. He admitted that the purpose of the existence of the Court was initially to protect the basic principles and values in the Constitution. “Democracy was the basic values of the Turkish Constitution,” he said.
The existence of the Court to guarantee the protection of the basic rights and freedom was mandatory for democratic society. Therefore, the main role of democratic country was to protect and enforce those rights and freedom.
“In other words, the country should hold back from the intervention of the society’s rights and freedom. As well as taking necessary steps to protect the rights effectively. The role of the Court in enforcing democracy can be accessed in the decisions regarding the rights to apply for candidacy in election, and rights to be included in political activities. For the Court, these political rights are inseparable elements from the pluralist and participatory democracy,” he said.
The Role of Malaysian Judiciary
Meanwhile, Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat as the President of the Federal Court of Malaysia shared that access to justice was the core component of law supremacy. The judiciary acted as the ‘media’ of the citizens to voice out their opinions, rights, and request the responsibility of an entity of its decision. This highlighted the role of the judiciary to protect the social, economic, and cultural rights of the citizens in Malaysia.
“The citizens came to the Court to fight for their rights and the Government came to the Court to interpret the laws. Realizing the values of Court’s independence and law supremacy. The judiciary then carries out the role and responsibility holistically in protecting the social, economics, and cultural rights of the society,” he said.
Maimun explained that Malaysia always adhered to the concept of wasatiyya or moderation, which emphasized the values of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding. As a multi-ethnicity and multi-religion country, Malaysia should uphold those values. “We believe that wasatiyya can and shall contribute to the protection of the values of humanity, democracy, and economic, social, and cultural rights of Malaysian people.”
Constitution Guaranteed the Rights of Thailand Muslim Citizens
Justice of the Constitutional Court of Thailand, Noppadon Theppitak in his speech delivered the paper entitled “Constitutionalism, Human Rights, and Judicial Justice in a Non-Muslim State: Thailand” in which he mentioned that Thailand was a Buddhist country with 93,5% of its population were Buddhists, whereas 5,4% of its population were Muslims.
Furthermore, Noppadon said that despite the relatively small percentage of Muslims in Thailand, Islam was the second largest religion in Thailand. The Muslims in Thailand were treated equally in regards to constitutionalism. They resided in 4 (four) provinces in Thailand, namely Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Satun. Since 1946, in this area, some religious matters had been ruled based on the Islamic Law.
“Basically the Constitution of Thailand stated that each individual was able to enjoy the full freedom to adhere to a certain religious belief including the freedom to practice the religion. Bearing in mind that in doing so brings no harm or danger to the country and it does not violate the public order or decency. As a result, Muslims in Thailand and followers of other religious beliefs can enjoy the same rights and practicing their religions just like the Buddhists in Thailand,” he said.
On the same occasion, there were several other speakers namely Malinovskiy Victor from the Constitutional Council of Kazakhstan, President of the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan Farhad Abdullayev, and President of the Constitutional Court of Jordan Hisham Al-Tal, President of the Constitutional Council of Algeria Kamel Fenniche, President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Saeed Marey Amr, as well as Justice of the Constitutional Council of Mozambique Albano Macie.
On a side note, the 1st J-OIC Conference was conducted in Turkey on 14-15 September 2018 resulting in Istanbul Declaration which agreed on 3 (three) matters as follow: (1) the Conference would be conducted periodically to discuss about constitution and human rights as well as promoting the rule of law and protection of human rights, (2) the creation of a working group to determine the form and next steps of the forum in the future, and (3) Indonesia was entrusted to be the host of the next conference.
Carrying out the trust, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia hosted the Conference in Bandung, West Java on September 15-17, 2021 using the hybrid method (combining both online and on-site participation) under the main theme “Human Rights and Constitutionalism: The Contribution of Judiciary in Moslem Countries” and subthemes “Leason learned: The Role of Judiciary to Promote Humanity and Democracy” and “The Protection the Social, Economics and Cultural Rights in Pluralistic Society”. The Conference was attended by 32 countries, Turkey and Pakistan attended on-site and 30 others attended virtually.
Writer: Sri Pujianti
Editor: Lulu Anjarsari
Translator: WA
Translation uploaded on Sept 27, 2021 at 10.01 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.
Thursday, September 16, 2021 | 17:53 WIB 236