Indonesia’s LGBT Community Under Threat

Indonesia Forum and Human Rights Watch present:

Public Lecture 

Indonesia’s LGBT Community Under Threat

with Andreas Harsono (Human Rights Watch Indonesia)

Wednesday, 20 September 2017

13.00 – 14.15 AEST

Room 553 (Discursive Space)

Arts West Building, The University of Melbourne – Parkville

Indonesia’s LGBT Community Under Threat

Since January 2016, the basic rights and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Indonesia have come under an unprecedented attack following an onslaught of hateful and misinformed rhetoric from government officials and politicians. Anti-LGBT statements by government officials have provided social sanction for harassment and violence against LGBT activists and individuals, and even death threats by militant Islamists. In some cases, the threats and violence occurred in the presence, and with the tacit support, of government officials or security forces.

Join Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher, Andreas Harsono, as he discusses increasing attacks against sexual and gender minorities, why the Jokowi administration must do more to defend LGBT rights and how the international community including Australia can best work with Indonesia to protect human rights.

Andreas Harsono has covered Indonesia for Human Rights Watch since 2008. Before joining Human Rights Watch, he helped found the Jakarta-based Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information in 1995, and in 2003 he helped create the Pantau Foundation, a journalism training organization also based in Jakarta. A staunch backer of the free press, Harsono also helped establish Jakarta’s Alliance of Independent Journalists in 1994 and Bangkok’s South East Asia Press Alliance in 1998. Harsono began his career as a reporter for the Bangkok-based Nation and the Kuala Lumpur-based Star newspapers, and he edited Pantau, a monthly magazine on media and journalism in Jakarta.