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Judiciary Reform: MoU between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement

Implementations

Judiciary Reform – 2005

An independent and impartial court system for Aceh was one of the crucial provisions of the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding. In this regard, the establishment of an independent court was to be dealt with in the autonomy bill which was drafted and submitted to the Indonesian government; the Indonesian government was about to submit it to the parliament in late 2005.¹

“Controversy over drafting of constitution for Indonesia’ Aceh continues,” BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, December 22, 2005.

Judiciary Reform – 2006

The judiciary reform provision was implemented in 2006. The draft bill was submitted to the parliament in January² and the bill was passed by the parliament on 11 June.³ The bill came into effect on 1 August 2006 and provided for the establishment of the SyarÕiyah Court and District/City SyarÕiyah Court, which were recognized as the executors of judiciary authority on issues related to religion (Article 15). Nevertheless, only the Muslims in Aceh are subject to such a court system (Article 126).

“Indonesia submits draft law on Aceh to parliament,” Agence France Presse, January 27, 2006.
“Indonesian media reacts to passing of Aceh governance law,” BBC Monitoring, July 12, 2006.