Indonesia Moves to Modernize Human Rights and Copyright Laws in the Evolving Digital Era
- Human Rights Research Center
- May 26
- 3 min read
Author: Aamnah Fatima Khan
May 26, 2026
HRRC strongly encourages Indonesia to ensure that any reforms fully adhere to international human rights norms, but it also encourages initiatives to increase protections for digital rights, privacy, and emerging technology. HRRC opposes any actions that would limit the right to free speech, weaken independent human rights organizations, or give state authorities the power to judge the credibility of human rights advocates.
![Crowd of activists protesting with banners in Jakarta, Indonesia [Image credit: Irgi Nur Fadil, Pexels]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f05ed1_20a6dbfeb6aa4f8e9777ff50cfd3cb7d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_653,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/f05ed1_20a6dbfeb6aa4f8e9777ff50cfd3cb7d~mv2.jpg)
Indonesia is preparing major revisions to both its Human Rights Law and Copyright Law to address challenges arising from emerging digital technologies, privacy concerns, environmental rights and artificial intelligence (AI).
According to Deputy Minister of Human Rights Mugiyanto Sipin, the Revision of Law No. 39 of 1999 on Human Rights is necessary because the more than two-decade-old legislation is no longer completely reflective of the evolving issues. The proposed amendments also aim to strengthen accountability among state institutions, as well as in the private and corporate sectors. Public consultations are currently being conducted as part of the National Legislation Program.
During the consultations, some experts proposed merging various human rights commissions into a single national institution to improve coordination and integrate the public complaint procedure.
However, concerns have emerged regarding proposals linked to defining “recognized” human rights defenders. Human Rights groups warned that allowing the government to determine who qualifies as a rights defender could threaten freedom of expression and association. Critics argue that such measures may weaken the independence of activists and institutions such as Komnas HAM.
Separately, Indonesia is also drafting a new Copyright Law to regulate digital content and AI-generated works. The draft law proposes copyright protection for AI-generated content with sufficient human involvement and expanded protection to e-books, based games and other digital creations.
Glossary
Accountability – the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it, or the degree to which this happens.
Artificial Intelligence – the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans.
AI-generated – AI-generated content is any type of content, such as text, image, video or audio, which is created by artificial intelligence models.
Complaint – a statement that something is wrong or not satisfactory.
Copyright Law – Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression.
Corporate Sector – the part of a country's economic activity that involves private companies.
Draft – to draw the preliminary sketch, version, or plan of something.
E-Books – an electronic book which can be read on a small personal computer.
Environmental rights – means any proclamation (public or official announcement) of a human right to environmental conditions of a specified quality.
Legislation – a law or set of laws suggested by a government and made official by a parliament.
Procedure – a set of actions that is the official or accepted way of doing something.
Privacy Concerns – the state of being alone, or the right to keep one’s personal matters and relationships secret.
Public Consultants – refers to achieving these goals for government agencies at the local, state, or federal level and other non-profit entities.
References
