Komnas HAM, Indonesia UNCRPD Written Contribution
mental disability, added with the minimal and unequal access to mental health services,
people tend to seek whatever alternative treatments available. This gave way to the rise
of privately-managed social rehabilitation centres, operating without any proper
government oversight.
14. These rehabilitation centres accommodate persons with disabilities to be rehabilitated
and carry out various methods for dealing with persons with mental disabilities. Komnas
HAM’s findings from its observation of several rehabilitation centres in Central Java and
Yogyakarta regions throughout the period of 2016, 2017, and 2018 suggest that these
rehab centres are a form of institutionalization of social rehabilitation practices without
any form of supervision. Some of the practices carried out by these rehab centres include
chain shackling, wooden shackling, confining, and all forms of exclusion; administration
of one type of medication and dosage for all patients by non-professional and without
periodic assessments; administration of castration drugs and injections or contraception
without informed consent from the patients; head shaving of both men and women;
bathing by caregivers of the opposite sex, which poses a risk of sexual harassment.
List of Issues:
1. If rehabilitation centres are managed by provincial government, how can the Ministry
of Social Affairs ensure that oversight of the rehabilitation centres is performed
properly?
2. Has the Indonesian government taken action to stop the alleged practices of human
rights violations in rehabilitation centres, at least by giving sanctions or closing ones
that have been proven to have committed human rights violations and/or torture?
3. How does the government organize and ensure continued and regular organization of
awareness-raising programs in order to reduce inhuman treatment of persons with
disabilities, especially persons with psychosocial mental disability?
4. Does the government have a guideline for respectful treatment of persons with mental
disabilities and how they are implemented?
Part II Analysis of the Articles
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