MAIN FINDINGS INTEGRATED - 221210

Chapter 4
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The findings of the impact assessment of the LEAD Project in Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi and
North Maluku will be presented based on the category of project results discussed in the LEAD Project
Document. Those expected results of this Project include increased legal awareness of target claim
holders, strengthened capacities of target claim holders to access justice and strengthened legal service
community, strengthened justice sector reform efforts.
The findings are supported by the results from the quantitative research (the survey) and qualitative
research. Findings from quantitative research are mostly representing the impact of the LEAD Project
generally in the three Provinces, although some main findings are analyzed based on more specific
categories, such as provinces, gender and education level. Meanwhile findings from qualitative research
provide confirmation and explanation for the quantitative results. Case studies highlight the magnitude of
certain results.
I. ON THE INCREASED LEGAL AWARENESS OF TARGET CLAIM HOLDERS
1
Main Findings
• Legal awareness strengthened. Beneficiaries’ legal awareness is strengthened. The
indications are the larger percentage of beneficiaries compare to non beneficiaries who
have “high level” of legal awareness, the higher mean score of legal awareness of the
beneficiaries compare to that of non-beneficiaries
• The magnitude of impact varies. The impact was more significant in strengthening
attitude toward access to justice than strengthening basic legal knowledge, on
strengthening access to formal justice system and on rights related to gender-based
violence, and on the awareness of women and low-educated people.
• Influencing factors. The network and capacity of CSO as well as the strategy of
socialization used by the CSOs have made an important contribution to the successfull
efforts
• The challenges. Among others, sustainability of the legal awareness process at the
village level, legal capacity of duty bearers to conduct legal awareness, and the
capacity of government to provide justice services are the challenges faced by the
Project to maintain the impact.
• Immediate result. Citizen as claim holders started to access appropriate forum to seek
justice over a grievance.

Legal awareness is a necessary prerequisite in promoting access to justice, especially for poor,
disadvantaged and marginalized citizens who are often the least able to assert and protect their rights.
During its three years of implementation (2007-2010), the LEAD Project has been focusing in
strengthening the legal awareness of the beneficiaries of the project by providing legal knowledge and
information. Such knowledge and information include issues related to citizen’s rights over government
services, gender-based violence and discrimination, citizen’s rights over the ownership and management
of land and natural resources, as well as the rights of citizen to have legal assistance and protection.
Legal awareness activities carried out by the CSOc (Civil Society Organizations) under the LEAD Project
in three provinces have shown a remarkable impact across sectors on the beneficiaries’ legal awareness
compare to the control group who did not received such legal empowerment services, the non-
beneficiaries. This impact is indicated by two results from the survey. First is the larger percentage of
beneficiaries compare to non beneficiaries who have “high level” of legal awareness.1
Second is the
higher mean score of legal awareness of the beneficiaries compares to that of non-beneficiaries.2
1. BENEFICIARIES’ LEGAL AWARENESS WAS STRENGTHENED
Legal knowledge is critical to securing community’s access to justice. Legal knowledge lays the
foundation of an attitude toward access to justice, while attitude lays the foundation for a legal action in
case of a grievance. With this framework, beneficiaries’ legal awareness is assessed in terms of their
legal knowledge and their attitude on the issues of access to justice. Assessing legal awareness through
these two categories has helped this research to assess the magnitude of knowledge received through
the Project. While beneficiaries’ legal knowledge describes their understanding over general issues on
rights, beneficiaries’ attitude toward access to justice describes their standpoint of what to do
hypothetically in case of a grievance.
In this research, legal knowledge is measured by the level of understanding over some general issues
regarding citizen’s rights over free government services, land ownership and management of natural
resources, and rights to participate in politics and social activities. Meanwhile, the attitude component of
legal awareness is measured by the standpoint over the citizen’s rights when accessing formal and
informal justice system and when gender-based violence, specifically domestic violence, occurs. It is
assumed that the possession of general legal knowledge, for example on women’s rights and gender
awareness, is required before one could have a standpoint of how to access justice when the rights are
violated.
1
For the first result, the impact of LEAD Project was assessed by comparing the number of beneficiaries and non
beneficiaries who have “high level of awareness,” which are those who give strong statement/answer, the “very
much agree” category, to all questions related positively to legal knowledge and attitude toward access to justice.
2
The second result is supported by the statistical test (Independent T-test) which indicates that the difference in
means between beneficiaries vs. non beneficiaries’ legal awareness is statistically significant (the significance
values or p-value ≤ 0.05). The T-test shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean of
legal knowledge and attitude scores for beneficiaries and non beneficiaries (significance values of knowledge and
attitude is lower than 0.05). In other words, beneficiaries have a statistically significantly higher mean score of legal
awareness than non beneficiaries.
2

In general, the LEAD Project has contributed significant impact on strengthening beneficiaries’ legal
awareness. LEAD Project’s beneficiaries were relatively more aware of knowledge related to legal rights
and legal assistance and protection. This finding is supported by two survey results. First, the research
shows that basically the number of beneficiaries with high level of awareness exceeds that of non-
beneficiaries, both in the aggregate measurement of knowledge (99.7 percent as compared to 87.5
percent) as well as in the aggregate measurement of attitude (64.2 percent as compared to 50 percent).
For legal knowledge, almost all beneficiaries were found to have strong awareness of the issues of rights.
While legal knowledge was not the problem for beneficiaries, more specific legal knowledge related with
the attitude of how to access justice was still not known by a fair number of beneficiaries (35.8 percent).
The number is even higher with the non-beneficiaries (50 percent).
Second, the research also shows that beneficiaries were found to have higher level of awareness than
the non-beneficiaries. Beneficiaries compare to non-beneficiaries tend to have higher mean scores, both
for aggregate knowledge (3.58 as opposed to 3.37) and for aggregate attitude (3.17 as opposed to 2.82).
The T-test statistics show that the difference in mean scores are statistically significant, thus confirms that
the result will be most likely to be found at the population level. However, the mean score in aggregate
attitude that is lower than in aggregate knowledge implies that the majority of respondents, both
beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, were found to have greater familiarity with general issues on rights
and lesser familiarity with knowledge related with the rights to access justice.
Chart 4.1
Group Mean Significance Value
Knowledg
e
Beneficiary 3.39 (Very much agree)
0,007 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 3.19 (Agree)
Attitude
Beneficiary 3.17 (Agree)
0,000 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 2.82 (Agree)
Therefore, in general legal knowledge is relatively quite accessible to both beneficiaries and non-
beneficiaries. It is clearly shown when the legal knowledge variable is disaggregated by issues, which are
knowledge about government service, knowledge about land ownership and natural resource
3

management, and knowledge about the rights of marginal groups to participate in politics and social
activities. In all the issues, the number of beneficiaries who have high level of knowledge is higher than
the non beneficiaries. More number of beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries who have high level of
awareness related with rights on government services (63.9 percent as compared to 43.1 percent), rights
on land and natural resources (62.2 percent as compared to 56.9 percent), and the rights of marginal
groups to participate in politics and social activities (87.8 percent as compared to 73.6 percent).
Chart 4.2
Government
Services
Beneficiary 3,80 (Very much agree) 0,005 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 3,48 (Agree)
Natural
Resources
Beneficiary 3,33 (Agree) 0,103 (Not significant)
Participation Beneficiary 3,61 (Very much agree) 0,055 (Not Significant)
However, the statistics show that beneficiaries have a significant higher level of legal knowledge compare
to non beneficiaries only in the issues of government service. Although the mean scores of legal
knowledge of beneficiaries are relatively higher compare to those of non beneficiaries across issues,
however, only in the issue of government service the difference of mean score is statistically significant.
Therefore, for issues related to natural resources and the rights of women and marginalized group to
participate in politics and social activities, the LEAD Project did not share a significant contribution. It is
likely for people to have the capacity to access such information.
Note that in assessing community legal awareness, no specific knowledge related with the State law and
regulation are assessed. The most priority is to assess the community’s awareness of their rights and of
what options are available to them to seek justice and legal assistance in case of the non-fulfillment of
those rights. Beneficiaries’ legal knowledge was indicated by their knowledge related to some questions,
among others, in the table below.
Table 4.1: Some Questions to Measure Legal Knowledge
Issues Beneficiaries Non
4

Government service
Everybody should be able to access ID card regardless the gender,
religion and ethnicity
46.9% 38.9%
There are subsidies from Government in your village for poor
children to go to school
56.2% 52.8%
Apart from registration fee, Jamkesmas are free in your village for
poor families
49.3% 40.3%
Natural resources
For community owned land that is not owned by Government, no
company can cut down trees without community’s permit and
government’s permit
54.5% 51.4%
Company can dump waste in the river without a permit and without
special treatment of the waste
64.9% 63.9%
When you disagree with Adat decision on land dispute you can get
your case heard
36.8% 34.7%
Gender & marginal group’s participation
Only richer people have the right to run for the position of village
head
79.5% 66.7%
Only men have the rights to run for the position of village head 68.8% 62.5%
Only boys have a right to go to school 78.5% 79.2%
I.1. More significant impact in strengthening attitude toward access to justice
Providing basic legal knowledge might be a starting point of legal empowerment in the community level.
However, general legal knowledge is relatively accessible for the poor and disadvantaged group. What is
more important than basic knowledge about rights is the ability to recognize a situation in which they may
have legal rights and know when and how they should seek further assistance to obtain satisfactory
remedy. Unfortunately, the more specific understanding about how to access justice in case of a
grievance, was not as much accessible for the poor and disadvantaged groups as the general legal
knowledge one. For this reason, the LEAD Project has played a significant role in bridging the gap
between the strategic need of the poor and disadvantaged group for legal awareness and the shortage of
such service at the grass-root level.
This research confirms that the LEAD Project is mostly effective in strengthening beneficiaries’ attitude
toward access to justice. The statistics indicates that the Project’s impact was even greater in terms of
strengthening the attitude of beneficiaries to seek justice rather than in strengthening beneficiaries’ basic
knowledge on rights. The T-test statistics shows that the difference in mean score of attitude is
statistically more significant than the difference in mean score of knowledge between beneficiaries and
non-beneficiaries.3
This means that beneficiaries have even higher legal awareness than non-
beneficiaries in terms of the attitude, which is on the issues of rights to access justice in case of
grievance.
For example, more beneficiaries understand that if they are beaten by a family member, they can report
this to the police or at least village head. And that when the case occurs, they can have legal assistance
for free as well as special protection for witnesses and victims by the police. The survey captures that for
such issues, beneficiaries tend to have a very high positive attitude than the non-beneficiaries. They are
3
The T-test shows that the level of significance is even stronger in the attitude toward access to justice (p = 0.000)
rather than in legal knowledge (p = 0.007). In general, a large T-score and low p-value indicates an observed
difference that is statistically significant.
5

also relatively more agreeable to stronger statements such as they “would go,” and not only “can go”, to
the police to report such domestic violence and that the police “should”, not only “will”, take action
accordingly.
Chart 4.3: Legal Awareness by Provinces
Province Group Mean Significance Value
Southeast Sulawesi
Knowledge
Beneficiary 3.42
0,012 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary
3.05
Attitude
Beneficiary
3.02
0,000 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary
2.56
North Maluku
Knowledge
Beneficiary
3.58
0,475 (Not significant)
Non Beneficiary
3.52
Attitude Beneficiary
2.95
0,009 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 2.72
Central Sulawesi
Knowledge
Beneficiary
3.19
0,147 (Not significant)
Non Beneficiary
3.02
Attitude
Beneficiary
2.96
0,001 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary
2.68
More interestingly, the trend that LEAD Project is mostly effective in strengthening attitude is found
consistently across Project’s location in three provinces. Among the three provinces, only in Southeast
Sulawesi that the difference in means score of legal knowledge between beneficiaries and non
beneficiaries is statistically significant. In Central Sulawesi and North Maluku, there are no significant
differences between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in terms of legal awareness. Meanwhile, in terms
of attitude toward access to justice, the differences in mean scores are statistically significant across the
three provinces. This suggests that basic legal knowledge is relatively accessible for non-beneficiaries in
Central Sulawesi and North Maluku. Most probably, the nature of past conflict had made people in the
location more critical on the issues of rights. Therefore, the Project’s contribution to legal knowledge was
not significant in those two locations. However, in terms of strengthening awareness related with how to
6

access justice, LEAD Project has contributed significant impact across provinces, where beneficiaries
were found to have greater awareness on how to access justice when a grievance occurs.
I.2. Strengthening awareness in accessing formal justice system and on gender rights
In general, there are two alternatives of justice system that can be accessed by villagers when they
perceive that their rights have been breached or their entitlement with-held, the formal and informal justice
system. The previous UNDP assessment of community access to justice in five provinces in Indonesia
found that citizens, especially women, strongly prefer the informal justice system.4
Similar findings were
also suggested by the study of the World Bank (2004) and the Asia Foundation (2005).5
In the case of
women, the World Bank report on women’s access to justice suggests that women have greater
preference for informal justice system because the actors are relatively well-known, accessible and less
costly. However, this alternative could not guarantee appropriate legal protection and satisfactory remedy
for women with legal cases, especially cases of domestic violence and rape. The informal justice actors or
duty bearers very often failed to give proper sanction to the defendant and ensured the law enforcement
for it.6
Those studies indicate that villagers are less likely to have the awareness and capacity to access
formal justice system as compared to informal justice system.
This research shows the significant impact of LEAD Project in strengthening beneficiaries’ legal
awareness regarding their rights in accessing formal justice system and the rights when experiencing
gender-based violence and discrimination. As can be seen from Chart 5.4, beneficiaries are especially
more likely than non-beneficiaries to have the high positive attitude over these two issues. Thirteen
percent more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries were highly aware about how to have their cases
handled by formal justice system (51 percent and 38.9 percent respectively), especially the police.
Meanwhile, only 9 percent more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries were highly aware about how to
have their cases handled by informal justice system, especially community or adat leaders (36.1 percent
as opposed to 44.1 percent). The disparity between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries are also
pronounced in their attitude about rights to access justice if they experience gender-based violence or
discrimination. As much as 12.5 percent more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries were highly aware of
this issue (61.1 percent and 48.6 percent respectively). Meanwhile, less disparity between beneficiaries
and non-beneficiaries is found (9.1 percent) in their attitude about the rights marginal groups to participate
in the development process (54.5 percent as compared to 47.2 percent).
The statistics also confirms that the different in mean scores of awareness between beneficiaries and
non-beneficiaries are statistically significant only on the issues of rights when accessing formal justice
system (p value is 0.001) and rights on gender-based violence and discrimination (p value is 0.029). The
differences of mean score of attitude are not statistically significant in the issues of rights when accessing
4
“Justice For All? – An Assessment of Access to Justice in Five Provinces of Indonesia,” UNDP, Jakarta, 2007, p. 64-
65. However, this study found that there is little difference between respondents who have used the formal justice
system (10%) as compared to the informal justice system (12%).
5
See “Survey Report: Citizen’s Perceptions of the Indonesian Justice Sector – Findings and Recommendation,” the
Asia Foundation, Jakarta, 2005 and “Village Justice in Indonesia: Case Studies on Access to Justice, Village
Democracy and Governance,” the World Bank, Jakarta, February 2004.
6
“Women’s Access to Justice in Indonesia: a Case Study on Women Justice Seeker in Cianjur, Brebes and Lombok,”
the World Bank, December 2008, p. 29-30.
7

informal justice system and rights of marginal groups. This implies that in the issues where the differences
are not significant, non beneficiaries could also access related legal information that beneficiaries have. It
is less likely the case in the issues where the differences are significant.
Chart 4.4
Rights in accessing
formal justice system
Beneficiary 3,10 (Agree) 0,001 (Significant)
Rights in accessing
informal justice system
Beneficiary 3,03 (Agree) 0,597 (Not Significant)
Gender right
Beneficiary 3,23 (Agree) 0,029 (Significant)
Right of marginal
groups
Beneficiary 3,33 (Agree) 0,050 (Not Significant)
The result shows that access to informal justice system is not the issue at stake in the village level. Both
beneficiaries and non beneficiaries face no significant barriers to seek help from community and adat
leaders when they face legal cases. While to bring or report cases to the police is not the choice for many
of village people. This finding confirms previous findings discussed above that the citizens strongly prefer
the informal justice system when facing legal case. The fact that beneficiaries of LEAD Project have
higher positive attitude to take action and report the cases to the police when facing legal cases shows
that the Project had significantly strengthened community access to formal justice system.
This is also the case for the issues of rights related to gender-based violence and discrimination. The
impact of LEAD project in forming a high positive attitude is statistically proven. Beneficiaries have more
awareness on domestic violence issues, such as, it is never acceptable for husbands to hit their wives;
that the husbands can be prosecuted since it is against the government law; and that when the case
happens traditional leaders should pass the case on to the police for handling if the victim requests for
referral. The impact of LEAD Project is more pronounced in strengthening beneficiaries’ attitude toward
the rights of gender. Meanwhile, no significant difference in the level of attitude toward the rights of
marginal groups in development process indicates that the issue was quite accessible for both
beneficiaries and non beneficiaries. Non beneficiaries tend to also have the awareness that women have
the right to be able to participate in, be represented by women leaders, and have space to speak out in
8

community decision making forums, as well as that special attention should be given to women to make
sure their needs and views are accommodated in community decision making forums. Beneficiaries’
attitude toward access to justice is measured among others with the questions on the table below.
Table 4.2: Some Questions to Measure Attitude toward Access to Justice
Issues Beneficiaries Non
Rights when accessing formal justice system
If you or someone you know are beaten by a family member you WOULD
GO AND report this to the police 26.7% 25%
If you or someone you know is beaten by a family member and you report
this, the police WILL take action 39.6% 37.5%
If you, a member of your family, or someone you know is charged by the
police is charged and arrested for a crime, the police SHOULD tell you/them
straight away that you can have someone who knows about the law to give
legal representation
35.4% 29.2%
Rights when accessing informal justice system
If you, a family member, or a friend are beaten in the home, and the case is
passed on to a traditional or community leader for handling, the sanctions
are heavier for the person who did the beating rather than the victim no
matter what and who trigger the conflict
11.1% 9.7%
In cases involving men and women which are handled by community leaders
or elders, women should be able to speak up in the forum 44.1% 37.5%
In cases involving violence, if you or a member of you family/friend were
unhappy with the outcome, the case can be passed on to the police 44.8% 37.5%
Gender rights
In your opinion, it is NEVER ok for husbands to hit their wives 58.3% 54.2%
When problems occur and husbands hit their wives, according to the
government law, husbands can be prosecuted and can be punished by the
law
45.8% 38.9%
When problems occur and husbands hit their wives, traditional leaders
SHOULD pass the case on to the police for handling if the victim requests for
referral
41% 36.1%
Rights of marginal group
Women HAVE THE RIGHT to be able to participate in or be represented by
women leaders and have space to speak out in community decision making
forums
51% 47.2%
Special attention SHOULD BE given to women to make sure their needs and
views are accommodated in community decision making forums 33.3% 29.2%
I.3. Stronger impact on marginalized groups: women and low educated citizens
The LEAD Project was designed to especially target the poor and most needy citizens in order to promote
greater access to justice for all, irrespective of gender, race, religion, age, class or creed. The previous
UNDP assessment showed that many of the key injustices cited by the disadvantaged or marginalized
communities relate to their social and economic welfare, meanwhile community awareness of specific
9

rights provided by Indonesian legislation is low.7
Therefore, basic legal awareness on their rights to
access government services and assistance, on gender rights, and on their rights to access appropriate
forum to seek for justice when injustices occurs is especially crucial for this communities. It is crucial not
only for the process of democracy and protection of human rights, but also for the improvement in
economic prosperity.
That such legal empowerment is mostly needed by the disadvantaged and marginalized groups is
strongly confirmed by the survey result. It shows that the LEAD Project has been more beneficial to
women and low educated citizens. As the Project was especially designed to reach the disadvantaged
and marginalized groups of people, this finding confirms that effectiveness of the project design. Female
and low educated beneficiaries are most likely to gain more awareness due to LEAD project as compared
to male and high educated beneficiaries.
Chart 4.5 Chart 4.6
Legal Awareness of Female Beneficiary Legal Awareness of Male Beneficiary
Group
Mea
n
Significance
Value
Knowledg
e
Beneficiary 3.84
0,008 (Significant)
Non
Beneficiary
3.53
Attitude
Beneficiary 2.97
0,000 (Significant)
Non
Beneficiary
2.62
7
“Justice For All? – An Assessment of Access to Justice in Five Provinces of Indonesia,” UNDP, Jakarta, 2007, p. 42,
51. The study found that six main categories of injustice issues encountered in five provinces of study are access to
government services and assistance, ownership and management of land and natural resources, gender violence
and discrimination, employment and labor rights, criminality and inadequate law enforcement, and post-conflict
security and property rights.
10

Due to the Project, women experienced more significant gain in legal awareness than man do, especially
in terms of their attitude toward access to justice. A very high 70.6 percent of female beneficiaries
compare to 48.7 percent of female non-beneficiaries are having high level of awareness in terms of
attitude toward access to justice. The difference between female beneficiaries and female non-
beneficiaries in terms of attitude toward access to justice is significantly higher than the difference
between male beneficiaries and male non-beneficiaries for the same category (21.9 percent as opposed
to 4.5 percent respectively). This apparent high difference between female beneficiaries and female non-
beneficiaries with high level of attitude can perhaps be explained that knowledge on the rights to access
justice system, legal assistance and protection, and gender rights are not accessible for most women in
the village. Therefore LEAD Project has significantly strengthened their capacity to access legal
information.
The statistics also confirms that the impact of the LEAD Project on women is greater than on men. The
statistics shows the difference of mean score of legal knowledge and attitude toward access to justice
between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries are significant (the p values are 0.008 and 0.000
respectively). This suggests that female beneficiaries compare to female non-beneficiaries have a
significantly higher level of awareness, both on legal knowledge (3.84 as opposed to 3.53) and attitude
toward access to justice (2.97 as opposed to 2.62). While in male beneficiaries, the significant difference
of mean score between male beneficiaries and male non-beneficiaries is only found in terms of the
attitude toward access to justice (p value is 0.000). This suggests that in terms of legal knowledge, there
is no significant difference between the level of awareness of beneficiaries and non beneficiaries.
Similar trend is also found the results of legal awareness are disaggregated by education. Those with low
level of education include respondents with junior high school education or lower, while those with high
level of education include respondents with senior high school education or higher. The impact of LEAD
Project is relatively greater on beneficiaries with low level of education rather than those of high level of
education.
Among low-educated respondents, the difference between beneficiaries and non beneficiaries with high
positive attitude toward access to justice is remarkably great (30.5 percent). In contrast, among high
11
Group
Mea
n
Significance
Value
Knowledg
e
Beneficiary 3.72
0,282 (Not Significant)Non
Beneficiary
3.58
Attitude
Beneficiary 2.98
0,000 (Significant)Non
Beneficiary
2.69

educated respondents, the difference between beneficiaries and non beneficiaries with high positive
attitude toward access to justice is only small (7.5 percent). Assuming that those low-educated
respondents are the most marginalized and disadvantaged citizen in the village, this evidence plainly
explains that legal information is likely not accessible for this group, thus has benefitted them at most.
Among the low education respondents, beneficiaries have statistically significant higher mean scores in
legal knowledge (64.7 for beneficiaries as compared to 55.5 for non-beneficiaries) and in attitude toward
access to justice (98.1 for beneficiaries as compared to 80 for non-beneficiaries). However, among the
high education respondents, beneficiaries have only statistically significant higher mean score in legal
attitude (98.3 for beneficiaries as compared to 90.4 for non-beneficiaries), not in legal knowledge (64.2 for
beneficiaries as compared to 62.1 for non-beneficiaries). This suggests that basic legal knowledge is
relatively more accessible for citizen with high level of education. However, legal awareness, both in
strengthening legal knowledge and attitude toward access to justice, is significantly necessary for citizen
with low level of education.
Chart 4.7 Chart 4.8
Legal Awareness of Low Educated Beneficiaries Legal Awareness of High Educated Beneficiaries
Group
Mea
n
Significance
Value
Knowledg
e
Beneficiary 3.81
0,007 (Significant)
Non
Beneficiary
3.26
Attitude
Beneficiary 2.97
0,000 (Significant)
Non
Beneficiary
2.42
12

2. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE IMPACT
The significant impact of LEAD Project on beneficiaries is indebted to at least two factors in the
implementation process, the network and capacity of CSOs that implementing the Project and the
strategy of socialization used in the implementation. Some evident especially from the qualitative
research suggest the significant role of these factors in strengthening beneficiaries legal awareness.
2.1.The capacity and networking of CSO
The presence of CSOs in strengthening beneficiaries’ legal awareness was very relevant. Although
people could access legal knowledge and information from various sources, especially television
program, the number of beneficiaries who admitted that their source of legal information was CSOs who
implemented LEAD Project is significantly high. The percentage of beneficiaries who received information
from the local CSOs or religious institution is quite significant (36.1 percent) compare to the percentage of
non-beneficiaries (4.2 percent). This explains that although people might receive legal knowledge from
many sources of information, however specific legal empowerment project is needed to build a more
positive attitude toward access to justice.
Most of the legal awareness activities were conducted at the grass-root level. This requires an effective
strategy to ensure people’s participation during the process as well as a good capacity of networking to
ensure cooperation among various stakeholders in the village level. It is evident that CSOs have the
experience and capacity to work and gain people’s participation and cooperation at the grass-root. Thus,
LEAD Project’s strategy to focus on strengthening the capacity of CSOs in implementing legal
empowerment project has helped the Project reached its main objective in legal awareness
Chart 4.9
13
Group
Mea
n
Significance Value
Knowledg
e
Beneficiary 3.78
0,100 (Not Significant)Non
Beneficiary
3.65
Attitude
Beneficiary 2.98
0,000 (Significant)Non
Beneficiary
2.74

CSO’s strategy to recruit local citizen advisors (cadres, paralegal, and barefoot among others) also
support their effort to ensure local people’s participation during the process of legal awareness at the
village level. The role of local citizen advisors as the legal information person in the village level was very
strategic to legal awareness activities. They would deliver their legal knowledge at any time in need,
unconstrained with situation and time. For example, they disseminated legal information while working at
the field or while sitting with neighbors after working hour. They would sustain the process of
strengthening legal awareness through village discussion or film watching on a day to day basis.
2.2.The strategy of socialization
The significant impact in strengthening legal awareness was also very much due to the very effective
strategy of socialization. The strategy includes village discussions, film viewing, interactive radio
dialogues, media socialization through the distribution of posters, brochures, and flyers locally. Especially
for CSOs that focused on rural/village areas, the strategy of village discussion, film viewing and focus
group discussion were proven to be very effective in transferring legal knowledge and information to
community.
Village discussion
The strategy of village discussion were proven to be very effective in transferring legal knowledge and
information to community as well as raising their confidence to speak up and express ideas or complaint
over public issues. Through this activity in the village level, LEAD Project can have a wide out-reach in
the community, including community member, religious and adat leaders. Critical legal knowledge can
also be delivered to community fruitfully. A dweller who was having a land dispute with government
admitted that village discussions have given her understanding about her rights on land and natural
resources. Meanwhile, in conflict area such as in Poso, Central Sulawesi, where due to social conflict
several years ago people become more resistant to discuss sensitive issues in public, village discussion
facilitated the people to have a community forum of discussion. A community leader in Poso claimed that,
“This forum allows villagers to speak what they think and what they want.”
Film viewing
14

The strategy of film viewing in the community was effective in reaching large number of people. People
were enthusiastic to attend and participate in the activities since it was considered as entertainment for
them. Through these activities in the village level, LEAD Project can have a wide out-reach in the
community. Mostly, the activities also involved community, religious and adat leaders in the village.
Besides, film viewing activities were also effective in delivering sensitive issues that were not aligned yet
with local practices and tradition, such as domestic violence. Supported by a campaign that was
conducted before and discussion that was conducted after the film viewing, people gained understanding
regarding the issues being discussed. An adat leader in Southeast Sulawesi declared, “Now I’m afraid to
pinch my child…” While a religious leader commented, “Now we have to beware for not getting involved in
domestic violence!”
Posters/flyers
Although it is not as effective as village discussion or film viewing in raising people’s legal awareness
regarding heavy topics such as domestic violence, however posters play quite significant a role in terms
of giving a saturation effect regarding the issues delivered through village discussion or film watching. For
CSOs who work on gender issues, the working objective is to change the mindset of the community to be
more gender responsive. A CSO in North Maluku, Daurmala, claimed that changing the mindset of the
community is not an easy task. The patriarchal culture of the community and the traditional religious
values concerning gender relations consider domestic violence as a private and domestic issue which is
not to be intervened by outsiders. This culture has been internalized and socialized for a long time in the
community. Therefore, besides activities such as village discussions and film watching, distribution of
posters posted conspicuously in strategic places had helped the paralegals in reminding the community of
the relevance and significance of the anti domestic violence issue.
Posters are also effective in providing general information in strategic area. LBH Kendari who worked at
the capital city of Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, used big posters that placed in front of their Post of Legal
Aid to inform people about their existence as a legal aid service which provides free legal aid to the
poor/disadvantaged groups. A client reported that he knew LBH Kendari from a poster, thus when he
faced a dispute with the government over his land he knew where to seek free legal aid.
Local cadres and post/center of information or complaint
The presence of post of information or complaint in the village level also helped the effort of increasing
legal awareness. Usually the “post of information” was local cadres who acted as knot points in the
community to spread out legal information and knowledge as well as to facilitate village discussion. The
strategy of using local cadres as knot points in the community apparently became one of the key
successes to establish new ideas in the community. They were very proactive in spreading legal
knowledge and information in the village.
Radio dialog and advertisement
The used of radio channel could be effective in reaching a large coverage of target group. A CSO in
Southeast Sulawesi that used the state-owned radio (RRI) channel to disseminate the issues of domestic
violence and its role as the post of legal complaints for related cases, successfully reached a wide
coverage of target groups, including those who live in the remote areas in the province. As a result,
15

people started to report their legal case to CSO. However, in the context of Ternate, radio is not as
popular as it used to be. Radio shows though sometimes used by the CSO as a mean of socialization, is
not as popular, nor effective, as the interactive and face-to-face village discussions. Both CSO and the
local community admit that village discussions are the main mean of socialization which is considered the
most popular and the most effective in raising legal awareness locally.
Other innovative strategy
Some innovative strategy also worked well in delivering legal awareness in the community. Activity such
as cookie training was used by a CSO in Central Sulawesi as the entry point to discuss gender relation
issues. Another strategy, a clients meeting, was used by LBH Central Sulawesi to enrich beneficiaries’
legal perspective by discussing each client’s legal case. A client said “I always feel stronger and ready to
fight over my land conflict case after I shared my case and got positive support, not only from LBH but
also from other people whom LBH also assisted.” This meeting facilitated discussion among justice
seeker while provided encouragement and motivation for them to continue their effort to obtain justice
over their grievance.
3. IMMEDIATE RESULT: ACCESS TO APPROPRIATE FORUM
Increase of legal awareness in the community was indicated by the fact that people started to report their
legal case to CSOs. Beneficiaries started to have access to appropriate forum of justice system in the
village level to seek justice over a grievance and their grievances were received by local duty bearers.
The evident was especially experienced by CSOs works in gender issues. Gender awareness and legal
information regarding the law of the elimination on the violence of women and children have brought
significant impact on women. It helped women to somehow break the social and cultural constraints that
limit their capacity to seek justice over their grievance.
An evident is found from a CSO in Southeast Sulawesi, KPI, who recorded that their socialization of
domestic violence issues and law through radio news, village discussion and film watching during March
2008 – March 2009, has led many women reporting their legal case to KPI. Before conducting LEAD
project, KPI received only 1 to 2 cases per year. However, during LEAD project implementation, as many
as 20 cases (in the year of 2008-2009) and 23 cases (in the year of 2009-2010) consecutively were
reported to KPI, either through the legal cadres in the village or directly to KPI office in Kendari City.
Those cases usually were facilitated by KPI Community Organizers (COs). While village discussion and
film watching have targeted the local people in the villages where LEAD Project was implemented, KPI’s
strategy to use the state-owned radio (RRI) channel to disseminate the issues of domestic violence and
the role of KPI as the post of legal complaints for such cases, have reached beneficiaries in all region.
This was also experienced with another CSO in Poso, Central Sulawesi, KPKP-ST. Their strategy to
promote information/complaint centers in 30 locations had led many women reporting their legal case to
KPKP-ST. A lady who is responsible with the center testified, “I even have to work harder since so many
women came here, asking for my help for their family problems, or even to solve their problems with
litigation process.”
16

II. ON THE STRENGTHENED CAPACITY OF TARGET CLAIM HOLDER TO
ACCESS JUSTICE
Increased legal awareness is the basic outcome of legal empowerment process. In the previous
discussion, the research has shown that, more than impacting on the increased knowledge regarding
specific rights, the LEAD Project was especially beneficial in strengthening beneficiaries’ attitude toward
access to justice. This finding basically confirms the next expected results of the Project, which is
17
Main Findings
• Strengthened capacity to access legal service. More beneficiaries have been using
legal service or assistance provided by various justice actors, especially those related
with the LEAD Project: the CSOs, related community advisors (community organizers,
cadres, barefoot, etc.), legal aid organizations and paralegals.
• Factors influencing the impact. Beneficiaries capacity to access justice is
strengthened due to the presence of local duty bearers at the village level, the
functioning of LEAD Project legal service and the revitalizing of government service.
• The presence of local duty bearers is vital. The presence of LEAD Project Citizen
Advisor has been significantly benefiting benefiries.They play a vital role in connecting
communities with formal justice system actors, provide legal assistance using the non-
litigation mechanism, reach the unreachable citizens in the village, and able to interfere
with existing gender biased custom.
• The functioning of LEAD Project legal services is significant. LEAD Project legal
services such as post of information for legal advice, post of complaint for government
services, and village discussion at the village level have strengthened the access of
beneficiaries to legal services.
• The revitalization of government legal services. An effective Women and Children
Empowerment Integrated Services Centre provide integrated legal service to target
claim holders.

strengthened legal capacity of target claim holder to access justice. The high level of awareness toward
access to justice, which in this research is categorized as the attitude part of beneficiaries’ legal
awareness, indicates the successful efforts of the Project to build the law-oriented skills necessary for
target claim holders to assert or realize their rights, i.e., to access justice.
However, strong attitude to access justice from the demand side was necessary but not sufficient
condition to ensure marginalized and disadvantaged citizens’ access to justice. The sufficient condition
relates very strongly with the supply side of access to justice. When people are aware of their rights and
seek justice over a grievance, an effective handling of grievance and a provision of remedy are needed as
the sufficient condition to ensure people’s access to appropriate forum. The appropriate forum in LEAD
Project’s framework may be either formal or informal justice system, and may include local government
offices and processes not normally associate with the formal justice system. This appropriate forum must
be accessible by citizen as claim holder and capable to deliver an effective handling of grievance and
provision of remedies. 8
In order to strengthen the capacity of target claim holders to access justice, the LEAD Project has been
focusing on the legal empowerment strategy. The LEAD Project’s initiatives for community legal
empowerment include efforts to build paralegal capacities for specific villages and strengthen NGOs that
will develop greater levels of legal knowledge and skills within communities. Besides, the strategy also
includes efforts to support legal services provided by lawyers, NGOs and other professionals.9
1. BENEFICIARIES CAPACITY TO ACCESS LEGAL SERVICE FROM DUTY BEARERS ARE
STRENGTHENED
This research found that the LEAD Project has contributed some significant impact on strengthening the
capacity of target claim holder to access justice. Chart 5.10 shows that beneficiaries have more capacity
to access legal assistance from certain forums at the village as well as outside the village. It shows that
more beneficiaries have been using legal service or assistance provided by various justice actors,
especially those related with the LEAD Project, the CSOs, related community advisors (community
organizers, cadres, barefoot, etc.), legal aid organizations and paralegals.
The significant impact of LEAD Project on the strengthening claim holder’s access to justice is especially
indicated by the fact of the very high number of beneficiaries as compared to non-beneficiaries who
claimed that they “have used”, or “would use if they had a problem”, the legal aid organization or
paralegal (43.8 percent as opposed to 11.1 percent) and the CSOs or related citizen advisors (49.7
percent as opposed to 18.1 percent). As much as 32.7 percent more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries
who claimed that they have used or would use legal aid organization or paralegal, and 31.6 percent more
beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries who claimed that they have used or would use CSOs or related
citizen advisors when they had a legal case indicate that the presence of such actors or forum are very
significant to the strengthened capacity of beneficiaries to access legal service.
8
An effective justice delivery system entails the impartial, timely and consistent application of known norms by
formal and informal justice delivery systems, free from corruption, political intervention and in accordance with
national and international human rights standards (LEAD Project Document, p. 6).
9
The LEAD Project Document, p. 14
18

Similar trend is also found in terms of beneficiaries access to community-based organization such as
PKK, Karang Taruna or Majlis Ta’lim and formal justice actors, especially the police and lawyers. As
much as 10.7 percent and 11.8 percent more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries claimed that they have
used or would use community-based organization and formal justice actors respectively. The T-test
statistics also confirms that the difference in mean scores between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries
who have access to each legal service is statistically significant.
Meanwhile, it is not the case in terms of beneficiaries access to legal service provided by village head,
government officers and informal justice actors (community/religious/adat leaders). Although the number
of beneficiaries who claimed that they have used or would use the mentioned legal service is relatively
higher than the non-beneficiaries for each service, however the results of T-test statistics show that there
are no significant difference in the mean score between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in the use of
such services.
Chart 4.10: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Service
“Have you used the following legal service when you have had a problem involving
the law, violence, disputes or problems of a similar nature?”
Type of Legal Service Group Mean Significance Value
Community-based Organization
Beneficiary 0,26
0,033 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 0,15
Legal aid organization or paralegal
Beneficiary 0,44
0,000 (Significant)
Formal justice actors
Beneficiary 0,35
0,043 (Significant)
Village head
Beneficiary 0,46
0,084 (Not Significant)
Government officer
Beneficiary 0,23
Community/religious/adat leaders
Beneficiary 0,43
CSOs and related citizen advisor
Beneficiary 0,50
0,000 (Signficant)
19

When the results are disaggregated by province, the finding is still consistent across provinces. The very
high differences between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in the use of legal service are found in the
use of CSOs or related citizen advisors and the legal aid organization or paralegal. This fact indicates that
the impact of the LEAD Project in strengthening claim holder’s capacity to access justice is highly
significant.
20

Chart 4.11: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Service in Southeast Sulawesi
Beneficiary 0.15
0,000 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 0
Beneficiary 0.24
0,002 (Significant)
Beneficiary 0.24
Village head
Beneficiary 0.32
Government officer
Beneficiary 0.15
Beneficiary 0.26
Beneficiary 0.11
0,035 (Significant)
Chart 4.12: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Service in North Maluku
Beneficiary 0.11
Beneficiary 0.38
0,000 (Significant)
Non Beneficiary 0
Beneficiary 0.23
Village head
Beneficiary 0.31
0,003 (Significant)
Government officer
Beneficiary 0.11
Beneficiary 0.17
1.000 (Not Significant)
Beneficiary 0.39
0,000 (Signficant)
21

Chart 4.13: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Service in Central Sulawesi
Beneficiary 0.52
Beneficiary 0.7
0,000 (Significant)
Beneficiary 0.59
Village head
Beneficiary 0.83
Government officer
Beneficiary 0.42
Beneficiary 0.85
Beneficiary 0.86
0,000 (Significant)
However, there is a variety in beneficiaries access to legal service in Southeast Sulawesi and North
Maluku. In Southeast Sulawesi, the community-based organization played a significant role in
strengthening beneficiaries access to legal service, as compared to North Maluku where village head
played the significant role. In those two provinces, the numbers of beneficiaries who have access those
legal services are significantly higher than the non-beneficiaries (14.6 percent and 22.9 percent
respectively). In North Maluku, the fact that village head played a significant role in strengthening
beneficiaries access to legal services was partly due to the fact that local CSOs work closely with village
head in delivering legal services to the community.
2. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE IMPACT
This impact was mainly due to the strengthened capacity of various justice providers as duty bearers to
provide formal and informal justice delivery mechanism for marginalized and disadvantaged citizens as
target claim holders of the Project. Due to the Project, local citizen advisors have started to function in
providing legal services at the village level. Meanwhile, outside the village, the capacity of government
key stakeholders, especially district government officers, to provide an effective legal and public service
has been strengthened.
The survey shows that due to the LEAD Project, beneficiaries have more access to legal services
provided by various duty bearers either at the village level or outside the village. This research categorize
three groups of duty bearers that provide justice delivery mechanism for claim holders in the community.
22

First is the LEAD Project Citizen Advisors. They include community organizers, paralegal, cadres, and
barefoot who work mainly at the village level to provide legal assistance and their presence in the village
relates with the LEAD Project’s implementation. Second is the Village Informal Leaders. They include the
village heads, community leaders, religious leaders, and adat leaders who quite often play the role of
informal justice actors at the village level. Third is the Duty Bearers Outside Village. They include the law
enforcement officers, such as the police, judges, and lawyers, as well as government offices that are
accountable for the promotion of justice for marginalized and disadvantaged groups, such as among
others, the local government offices for women’s empowerment, for social welfare, and for manpower.
These three categories help the research to measure the magnitude of the Project’s impact on claim
holder’s capacity to access justice.
1.1 The presence of LEAD Project Citizen Advisors at local level
As can be seen from Chart 5.10, basically beneficiaries have more capacity to access various duty
bearers in case of a grievance as compared to non beneficiaries. Both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries
were asked whether, according to their knowledge, several duty bearers that provide legal advices were
presence in their village. The chart shows that more beneficiaries than non-beneficiaries have the
knowledge about the presence of the LEAD Project Citizen Advisors, Village Informal Leaders and other
duty bearers outside the village to provide justice delivery mechanism. However, among the three
categories of duty bearers, beneficiaries are mostly benefited from the presence of LEAD Project Citizen
Advisors at the village level.
Chart 4.14: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Advice by Type of Duty Bearers
Group
Mea
n
Significance Value
Lead Project Citizens Advisor
Beneficiary 0.75
0.000 (Significant)
Village Informal Leaders
Beneficiary 0.74
0.052 (Significant)
Duty Bearers Outside Village
Beneficiary 0.53
0.114 (Not significant)
23

A very high percentage of beneficiaries compare to non-beneficiaries confirms the significant presence of
LEAD Project Citizen Advisors in providing legal advice in the community (74,7 percent as compared to
40.3 percent respectively). In contrast, only 12.5 percent more beneficiaries confirms the presence of
Village Informal Leader in providing legal advice, and only 9.5 percent more beneficiaries confirms the
presence of other duty bearers from outside the village to give legal advice. A significant difference (34.4
percent) between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries who confirms the presence of LEAD Project Citizen
Advisors indicates that such legal service were still absent in many communities and that the presence
was very significant in the community.
The results of T-test statistics also confirm that the difference between beneficiaries and non beneficiaries
who have the access to LEAD Project Citizen Advisors as well as village informal leaders is significant.
This implies that the LEAD Project has contributed significant impact on strengthening beneficiaries
capacity to access legal advice from LEAD Project Citizen Advisors and village informal leaders.
However, on the contrary, the impact on the beneficiaries capacity to access duty bearers outside village
is not significant.
Chart 4.15: Beneficiaries Access to Legal Services
by Type of Duty Bearers and Provinces
Southeast
Sulawesi
Beneficiary 1.71
0.035 (Significant)
Beneficiary 1.65
Beneficiary 1.51
North
Maluku
Beneficiary 1.73
0.023 (Significant)
Beneficiary 1.85
0.019 (Significant)
Beneficiary 1.69
0.036 (Significant)
Central
Sulawesi
Lead Project Citizens Advisor Beneficiary 1.8 0.000 (Significant)
24

Village Informal Leaders Non Beneficiary 1.71 0.077 (Not Significant)
Beneficiary 1.5
0.051 (Significant)
Meanwhile the impact of LEAD Project in strengthening community access to village informal leader and
duty bearers outside villages were not direct. The evident that more beneficiaries as opposed to non-
beneficiaries who were also knowledgeable about the presence of village informal leaders and other duty
bearers outside village shows that beneficiaries had also gained the knowledge through the Project, that
they could seek legal advices from the rest two categories of duty bearers.
The presence of LEAD Project Citizen Advisors as specific-legal-empowerment duty bearers at the village
level was crucial in strengthening citizen’s capacity to access appropriate mechanism of grievance
handling. Several arguments are used to support this claim. First, they play a vital role in connecting
communities with formal justice system actors, thus strengthen community’s access to formal justice
system. Second, however, they also play significant role in strengthening the informal justice mechanism.
Their presence in the village was not only significant in delivering legal information and strengthening
community legal awareness, but also in providing legal assistance using the non-litigation mechanism.
They provide legal advice and handle case through mediation or ‘soft’ arbitration which usually being held
by village heads as the local authority. Nevertheless, they could not replace the role of traditional adat
leaders who handle cases through customary or adat law. Third, their presence is crucial to reach the
unreachable citizens in the village and interfere with existing custom that was in fact discriminating certain
groups in the community and violating their rights. The following case study highlights the role of
paralegal in delivering legal service at grass-root level.
Case Study 1: The Role of Paralegal in Ternate, North Maluku
In 2008. a village discussion was held in Tobololo, a village ‘behind the mountain Gamalama’ several miles from the city
center of Ternate. The discussion was held by the CSO Daurmala on the issue of women rights and more specifically,
domestic violence. Tthe village discussion was in the local dialect and not in formal Indonesian, and it attracted both men
and women from the immediate vicinity. One of the women who went to the village discussion was Ibu Odah. She is a
homemaker with a relatively good education and she was curious to what kind of discussion was being held by Daurmala.
Her husband has a stable job and her two children are in College and in Junior High School. She has both the time and the
opportunity to participate in this village discussion.
That was how it all began for Ibu Odah. She was impressed by the village discussion, because it made her realize the
meaning of domestic violence and that made her becoming more aware of her immediate surroundings and the potential
problems concerning domestic violence. She volunteered and was selected to become one of ten women who underwent
paralegal training organized by Daurmala. She was proud of being selected and that made her serious during her training.
After her paralegal training, she started to practise in her own village. In the past two years she has handled three cases
dealing with domestic violence and succeeded in bringing them to the local judicial court.
The sucess rate for Ibu Odah is remarkable in the local context. Out of the ten women who were trained as paralegals by
Daurmala in 2008, only Ibu Odah still practise as a paralegal. The other women did not practise as paralegals any longer.
Daurmala during the second phase of the project has to recruit new women from Tobololo to undergo training as paralegals.
Why was Ibu Odah the only one left behind from the first phase of training? One of the major reason was because the
Community Organizer hired by Daurmala for the first phase was not active and did not socialize with the women paralegals .
25

The women felt abandoned and was not motivated to stay on. In the second phase the community organizer from Daurmala
was very active and stayed with the women paralegals in Tobololo. Thus Ibu Odah is now accompanied by her four paralegal
women friends from the second phase of the project. The role of the community organizer as motivator and mobilizer was
very crucial to recruit and to maintain the network of women paralegals in Tobololo.
Ibu Odah is very proud of the fact that she was able to handle three cases concerning domestic violence in Tobololo,
including violence between a couple who was dating and not yet legally married. It is indeed remarkable that she was able to
pursue this particular case and was able to get a legal conviction from the judicial local court. Since the Law On Anti
Domestic Violence was specifically for couples who are legally married. The legal conviction means that there is now a
jurisprudence for dating couples and not just married couples. Ibu Odah was pleased for the woman since this case
convinced women and men that violence between couples are not tolerated any longer as it used to be.
One of the major obstacles Ibu Odah and her women paralegal friends have faced is the accusation of interfering in other
peoples’ private matters. Since domestic violence in traditional cultural context of Ternate was always considered as a
personal and domestic issue to be dealt with by family members and not by outsiders. These cases are usually handled
within the family and abiding to adat customary laws, not by the official legal establishment within the formal judicial system.
This is a breakthrough for women rights especially the anti domestic violence issue. The local patriarchal traditional culture is
gradually changing towards a more positive legal protection for women who are the vast majority of the domestic violence
victims.
In this context, it is also remarkable and not coincidental that all these women paralegals in Tobololo are originally from
areas outside of Tobololo. Ibu Odah came from Sanana in the Sula archipelago (south of Ternate) and so do her women
paralegal friends. With the exception of Ibu Atinah who is still single, all the other women paralegals in Tobololo such as Ibu
Eni and Ibu Suriah are married to local Tobololo men. It took all of them hard efforts to convince their husbands to allow them
to undergo paralegal training conducted by Daurmala. These women considered the local traditional culture of Ternate as
practised in Tobololo as highly patriarchal and this is the reason why not many local Tobololo women are willing to become
paralegals.
Highly aware of the cultural tradition, these “outside” women are not giving up hope for a better future. With the ongoing good
relations with Daurmala and the successful example of the hard work of Ibu Odah, they know that persistence and
perseverance will prevail for women victims of domestic violence in Tobololo.
1.2 The functioning of several LEAD Project’s Legal Services
Besides the presence of LEAD Project Citizen Advisor as the justice actors in the village level, some legal
service institutions were also vital in strengthening community access to justice. Such institutions include
information post for legal service and post of complaint for public/government services, as well as village
forum to discuss laws and legal issues.
Chart 4.16: Beneficiaries Access to
Post of Information for Legal Advice
Chart 4.17: Beneficiaries Access to
Post of Complaints for Government Services
26

The survey shows that the number of beneficiaries, compared to non beneficiaries, who have access to
such services are relatively higher. As much as 32 percent more beneficiaries have access to post of
information to seek legal advice. Meanwhile, as much as 22.3 percent more beneficiaries have access to
post of complaints to dissatisfaction of government services. The existence of post of information for legal
advice and post of complaint for government services at the village level have strengthened the access of
beneficiaries to legal services. The effectiveness of these institutions in providing legal service to
community is suggested by a qualitative finding from Central Sulawesi.
Case Study 2: The mechanism of complaint in Central Sulawesi
LPMS, a CSO working on justice and government sector, has strategically raised the awareness of local governance
level in order to support program objective in community level. Indeed, this effort has been multiplied the impact of
program in way it make good collaboration between bottom-up demand and top-down supply. This thing can be
happens because LPMS have advantage of some of their staffs have wide relation with informal local leader and
formal local leader, both in bureaucracy and local parliament.
The level of impact in community level can be seen in how people can speak their mind in diskusi kampong or other
meeting organized in community level. In case of BOS (education financial support by government), mother can
expressed their perspective related to their children rights to go to school free of charge. The good impact at
community level probably related to the quality of community cadres that already have trusted by other community
member. This trust apparently shows that she/he already has good capacity anyway. In some village, diskusi
kampong has arranged by community leader instead of CSOs. Furthermore, the participants have used the diskusi
kampong to discuss various issues instead of focus on governance issue as LPMS organizational mandate.
In providing complaint mechanism for the community, LPMS established P2IPM (Center for Information and
Community Complaint). P2IPM has great mechanism in giving information about civil rights as well as respond on
people complaint of the civil rights violation. The program staffs call this mechanism as “lazy advocacy”. This term has
used to explain the minor role of LPMS in facilitating the claim process from community member or other people who
want to make a complaint on certain public services issue. It is also represent a well organized pattern which already
developed by LPMS, so they do not need to give more effort to convey the complaint when the particular government
unit has proactively ask LPMS about what is the complaint and what should be done then. This mechanism relies on 3
sources of contact, such us: by phone/SMS; directly to LPMS office in Poso; or in P2IPM in 21 villages around Poso
district. Since this complaint mechanism really count on communication devices, the advocacy process to connecting
people need with government bodies resources had become more cheaper, so it sturdily the mean of “lazy” in lazy
advocacy.
Beneficiaries’ participation in village discussion activities was also found to significantly strengthen
villagers’ capacity to access justice. The survey indicates that the participation has resulted villagers to be
able to bring their complaint and protest to government officers, leaders in the village as well as to CSOs
staffs (Community Organizers) or trained paralegals or cadres. The impact is highest at beneficiaries’
capacity to bring report about their legal cases to CSOs (64.2%), followed by their capacity to bring cases
to village head (54.5%) and the government apparatus (46.9%).
27

Chart 4.18: Beneficiaries Access to Village Forum
Seminar/Discussion for Laws and Rigths
Beneficiaries participation in series of village discussion has brought some remarkable impact on the
capacity of community to access justice. As shown by Chart 5.15, a strong evidence of how this
participation affect beneficiaries capacity to report complaints to various duty bearers in the village levels.
Chart 4.19
2.1.The revitalization of government legal services
Community access to justice was also strengthened due to some Project’s efforts to revitalize the role of
government to deliver legal service. Some evidences from the qualitative study support this issue. Legal
capacity activity that has been conducted by KPI through the facilitation of the coordination meeting and
seminar for government key stakeholders and NGOs in Kendari has strengthened the Women and
Children Empowerment Integrated Services Centre (Pusat Pelayanan Terpadu Pemberdayaan
Perempuan dan Anak/P2TP2A) in the provincial level of Southeast Sulawesi. Led by Women
Empowerment Bureau (BPP) of the provincial level government, P2TP2A that has not yet function as
expected, started to provide grievance handling mechanisms for cases regarding violence against women
and children. P2TP2A involves many government agencies related with social affairs, health, community
empowerment, education, manpower, cooperative, agriculture, public hospital, and police, as well as
several NGOs, such as KPI, LBH Kendari, Bagansiar dan Alpen.
Administrator of P2TP2A claimed that the stakeholders’ coordination meetings have promoted a strong
interaction and coordination among government related agency as well as between government and
CSOs. The network that has been established through P2TP2A has proven to be effective in facilitating a
partnership forum that will provide a grievance handling mechanisms to victims of domestic violence.
28

Besides, they were also equipped with technical skill of counseling and assistance for victims of domestic
violence through a training for the companion of victims of gender based violence, especially domestic
violence that was conducted for all LEAD Project’s stakeholders in three provinces of the Project in 2009.
They declared that the technical skills were the practical things that they need to perform their task as
duty bearer and they never learnt before. Stronger commitment of the government on this institution was
also indicated by the fact that since 2010, Women Empowerment Bureau (BPP) has allocated the budget
of Rp. 400.000 per month for the two paralegals to handle cases. This commitment indicates the prospect
of a sustainability networking and partnership between government and CSOs through P2TP2A.
III. ON THE STRENGTHENED LEGAL SERVICE COMMUNITY
The highest level of legal empowerment is the provision of legal services to accommodate the
correspondingly increased level of both legal awareness and the legal capacity of the target claim holders
29
Main Findings
• Beneficiaries perception. The effectiveness of LEAD Project’s legal services is
indicated by the very high number of beneficiaries who claim that the project has been
contributing a usefull impact.
• The performance of CSOs. In varying degrees, the CSOs are relative successful in
their efforts to provide legal services. However, the effectiveness of the grievance
handling mechanisms varies across sectors and across province
• Community-based organization. These mass organization play the role of
information center and post of complaints in the community.
• Government legal service. P2TP2A was very effective in providing grievance
handling mechanism. An integrated partnership among various stakeholders allows the
institution to take a necessary and integrated action to provide remedies the
grievances.
• Pro-poor legal aid organization. The presence of pro-poor legal aid organization has
significantly strengthened community access to legal service, not only to formal justice
system but also to the non-litigation process

to access justice. The effectiveness of the legal services in the provision of the grievance handling
mechanism would strengthen the claim holders’ access and their capacity to reach a just and satisfactory
legal solution.
Meanwhile, in general most beneficiaries (45.1%) admitted that the LEAD Project is very useful for them.
In total, almost 90 percent of beneficiaries confirmed the usefulness of the Project in their life.
Chart 4.20
They admitted that due to the Project, their legal knowledge, legal capacity and access to legal service
are strengthened. Impact on legal knowledge in some beneficiaries means knowledge on gender rights
and on domestic violence, or knowledge on land rights and issues about the environment, or knowledge
on legal rights related to cases in courts, or knowledge on rights related to free government services such
as in health insurance (JAMKESMAS), education service, or other cash transfer. While impacts on legal
access include access to information on legal issues and dispute resolution processes, access to free
legal assistance provided by the police or government apparatus, or CSOs, and access to free
government services. Finally, impact on access to legal service include more attention of traditional
leaders to upholding gender rights, more responses from government to complaints, positive changes in
the way government services are delivered and accessed, and positive changes in the way people can
access legal information and support to solve their problem, that is people use CSOs, COs and Post of
Information for access to justice.
Chart 4.21
30

1. THE CAPACITY OF CSOs STRENGTHENED
In varying degrees, the CSOs are relative successful in their efforts to provide legal services. However,
the effectiveness of the grievance handling mechanisms varies across sectors and across province. In
Central Sulawesi the local CSOs have provided both legal services and legal information through their
trained paralegals as the duty bearers in the community. In Southeast Sulawesi for example, mass
organizations act as citizen assistance communities with varying degree of success and its corresponding
share of contextualized local problems, such as the degree of effectiveness, and the challenge of
sustainability. The best practice was the establishment of the P2TP2A in which an integrated partnership
was established. In North Maluku, a shelter (safe house) was erected in Ternate for victims of domestic
abuse who are mostly women. The local CSOs have successfully trained local women and men as
paralegals which have provided the beneficiaries as claimholders concrete legal services such as legal
assistance. The obstacle is that the legal assistance provided has not yet fulfilled the expectations of the
local marginalized groups.
When community is aware of their rights, they started to express their needs over a just, transparent and
accessible conflict resolution mechanism in order to access justice over their grievance. The presence of
legal service in providing an effective grievance handling mechanism would strengthen claim holder’s
access to appropriate forum as well as their capacity to obtain a satisfactory remedy. However, the
effectiveness of grievance handling mechanism varies across sectors and across locations
In Justice and Gender sector, effective grievance handling mechanism is weak in the village level, but
strong in the provincial level. At the village level, many of the mass organizations that play the role as
community legal services have lack of capacity to take necessary action to provide remedies for women
as victims of gender-based violence. However, at the provincial level, the existence of P2TP2A supported
by KPI’s community organizers and LBH Kendari’s lawyers has provided an effective grievance handling
mechanism. However, the existence of effective grievance handling mechanism does not guarantee that
the claim holders will receive appropriate remedies. A domestic violence case shows that after receiving
legal assistance from P2TP2A, the victim refused to continue her case since she did not want her
husband to send to jail.
In Justice, Land and Natural Resources sector, grievance handling mechanism in quite strong. The mass
organizations that provide legal service to the community have been able to take necessary actions for
remedies. The mass organizations in this sector have strengthened people’s access toward non-formal as
well as formal justice system
Finally, in Justice and Legal Service sector, effective grievance handling mechanism, especially through
litigation, was already strong. LBH Kendari has been able to provide pro bono legal aid to claim holders
with various legal cases.
2. COMMUNITY-BASED LEGAL SERVICE STRENGTHENED
31

In Southeast Sulawesi, the result of LEAD Project’s activities that aim at strengthening community legal
awareness, while at the same time strengthening the capacity of duty bearers to perform an effective
grievance handling was the formation of mass organizations in the grass-root level that soon acts as
forum for claim holders to seek remedies for their grievance. During the LEAD Project, SWAMI has
succeeded in facilitating the so-called Organisasi Rakyat (People Organization) in 20 village locations of
the Project. While KPI has formed its under-bow organizations at the community level, the so-called Balai
Perempuan (Women’s House) throughout the 15 villages where LEAD project were implemented. Both
Organisasi Rakyat and Balai Perempuan consist of the citizens in the village while the administrators are
chosen by the members through voting.
These mass organization play the role of information center and post of complaints in the community.
Organisasi Rakyat functions as Post of Information on Human Rights in the village level while Balai
Perempuan plays the role of information center and post of complaints for gender-based violence cases
in the village level. Ever since those mass organizations were formed, People require legal information to
the leaders or cadres of the organization; many grievance were also reported to the organization by local
people.
The existence of Organisasi Rakyat is found to be effective in strengthening people’s access toward legal
services. It has been quite effective in providing legal assistance to claim holders at village leve. Several
informants who are the leaders of Organisasi Rakyat in Napalakura Village explained that ever since
People Organization was formed, people always come to the organization to report legal cases. Not only
reporting cases regarding land and natural resources, e.g. for Jati wood stealing, but people also reported
their domestic violence cases or other crimes cases that they face. When the case needed to be
processed through litigation system, the leaders will refer the case to the police. Therefore the present of
People Organization has strengthened people’s access toward non-formal as well as formal justice
system.
Similar report also received from leaders as well as members of Organisasi Rakyat in Kontu Village.
They testified that the present of this institution has also provided secure environment for them to take
legal action whenever needed. They were no longer afraid to work on the land that is still in dispute with
the government. The existence of Organisasi Rakyat were also beneficial to the process of strengthening
legal awareness. Project’s activities such as village discussions and film watching were easily conducted
through this institution by the facilitation of the Community Organizer (CO) from SWAMI.
The effect of trainings for leaders of People Organization combined with the present of People
Organization was incredible. The case of the movement of People Organization in the two villages in
Raha, Napalakura and Tangkumaho, showed that when people are aware of their rights, know how to
manage their environment, and have the mass organization as the media/instrument for expressing their
opinion and make movement, they can have a high bargaining position to protect their land and natural
resources. In the two location mention above, the People Organization worked together to oppose a
private company who was going to destroy mangrove forest in the location in order to build fishponds.
People started to understand the function of mangrove forest and why it is needed to be protected.
Legal empowerment activities conducted by SWAMI at Muna Island, a CSO working on land and natural resources
issues in Southeast Sulawesi, has brought a significant impact. The legal awareness activities, such as village
32

that facilitated by SWAMI’s field worker, the “Community Organizer” in the late 2007. The leaders of Organisasi Rakyat
were chosen by the villagers and are very respected in the community. They were trained by SWAMI to deliver legal
knowledge and information to villagers, especially the members of Organisasi Rakyat, as well as to provide legal
assistance to villagers with legal cases.
In early 2008, a private company started to work over the land, destroying the Mangrove forest in Latawe village next
to Napalakura and Tangkumaho in order to build fishponds. Latawe was not the LEAD Project location, therefore there
was no Organisasi Rakyat formed in the village. “The company has not yet communicated about the project to villager,
and there was 7 ha of Mangrove forest has been destroyed,” said an informant. “Meanwhile, people could not be able
to demo the private company since it received support from the head of village,” he continued.
Knowing what had happened in its neighboring village, the leaders of Organisasi Rakyat in Tangkumaho started to
take some actions. Their intention was actually to ask Latawe’s head of village about the exact border between the two
villages in order to avoid the expansion of the private company to Tangkumaho. However, villagers of Latawe started
to get influenced by this action and created some tensions to the private company as well as village government.
Finally, people of Latawe showed their resistance against the project by asking the company to stop and flee from the
location.
To respond to the situation the Village Head of Latawe called the people of Latawe and leaders of Organisasi Rakyat
Tangkumaho to have a meeting with him and the private company. This invitation was quickly responded by the
leaders of Organisasi Rakyat Tangkumaho. In order to gain bargaining position, they however called leaders of
Organisasi Rakyat Napalakura to help providing legal assistance to villagers. In the meeting, they proven that the
company has no legal mandate to conduct its project and asked the company to stop it.
Leaders from Tangkumaho and Nalapakura started to provide the legal assistance, firstly by providing information
regarding the importance of Mangrove forest in their island to village people as well as in the meeting with Latawe
Head of Village and the private company. They questioned the company for not socializing the plan to community at
the first place.
They also claimed that the area in Latawe, Tangkumaho and Napalakura are the preservation areas, while some are
adat forest. Therefore the private company’s project need a legal permit from the government, which is the certificate
of AMDAL. They required the company to show their AMDAL certificate and found that the document they have was
only a letter of field visit for processing AMDAL certificate.
Later, they brought the copy of the letter to SWAMI to have a legal consultation. SWAMI encouraged the two
organizations to continue the legal facilitation and promised to give support anytime is needed.
After almost a year trying several times to approach the villagers, by asking support from Head of Villages, even to try
to do the project in other village, which are in Tangkumaho and in Napalakura, the private company finally stop the
project and flee from the location. Meanwhile, People started to understand the function of mangrove forest and why it
is needed to be protected.
3. GOVERNMENT LEGAL SERVICES STRENGTHENED
P2TP2A was very effective in providing grievance handling mechanism. An integrated partnership among
various stakeholders allows the institution to take a necessary and integrated action to provide remedies
the grievances. Strong networking among P2TP2A stakeholders is indicated by a clear and systematic
job description among them. Ever since the P2TP2A was formed in the end of 2008, KPI has been
supporting the institution by providing 2 community assistants that regularly work at P2TP2A office.
Domestic violence cases that were reported to KPI are delivered to P2TP2A and handled by the KPI
paralegals using the non-litigation procedure. However, legal cases that need to be handled through
litigation procedure will be handled by lawyers from LBH Kendari. Meanwhile, Bagansiar is supporting the
33

Office of Social Welfare to provide Home Shelter for victims of domestic violence at the provincial level. A
case study from Southeast Sulawesi highlights this issue.
Case Study: An integrated approach of P2TP2A has strengthened women’s access to justice
The presence of P2TP2A in Kendari city has significantly strengthened the legal service for women with legal cases.
P2TP2A is an integrated service, which partly facilitated by the LEAD Project. Domestic violence cases that were
reported to KPI are delivered to P2TP2A and handled by the KPI paralegals using the non-litigation procedure, then
passed to LBH Kendari’s lawyers for the litigation process. Meanwhile, Bagansiar is supporting the Office of Social
Welfare to provide Home Shelter for victims of domestic violence at the provincial level. The presence of this service
has benefited a claim holder with a divorce case, Ibu Eltje.
Ibu Eltje who was legally married for 37 years to her husband who was government officer. In 2008, her husband
wanted to divorce Ibu Eltje because their child knew that he was cheating on Ibu Eltje. Ibu Eltje was very confused and
did not know what to do at that time. However, a friend who had same experience and received legal assistance for
her case from KPI, a CSO works for gender issues, suggested her to bring and report her case to KPI. She would like
to find justice over her case hoping that the divorce case file would be rejected by the Religious Court.
KPI’s Community Organizer started to help Ibu Eltje by providing related legal knowledge and promised her to process
the case to formal legal justice system. She accompanied Ibu Eltje to meet a lawyer of LBH Kendari. With the
assistance of LBH Kendari’s lawyer, Ibu Eltje received legal information related to her case. She was explained about
her rights as citizen, rights to receive income from the husband after the divorce, and rights to receive legal assistance.
She was also offered a legal assistant from LBH Kendari. The fact that the legal service was free was the main factor
for Ibu Eltje to continue the mediation process of LBH Kendari.
After 12 times of court trial, the Judge agreed on the divorce file. The Lawyer adviced Ibu Eltje to bring the case over
the High Court of Religious Court. The result was the same, the High Court agreed on the divorce file for the reason
that there is no hope for the marriage. Currently, the case was brought to Kasasi process.
4. PRO-POOR LEGAL AID ORGANIZATION STRENGTHENED
The presence of pro-poor legal aid organization has significantly strengthened community access to legal
service, not only to formal justice system but also to the non-litigation process. This finding is confirmed
by the case of LBH in Central Sulawesi. It is interesting that LBH in Central Sulawesi prefers to use non-
litigation process rather than litigation process to solve any legal cases. LBH Sulteng has widened their
perspective of defending the rights of the poor by utilizing out-of-court processes. They believe as a
community organization that non-litigation process can deliver an effective grievance handling
mechanism.
For this non-litigation activity, LBH Sulteng has been active in facilitating and enhancing peasant based
community group in Central Sulawesi. LBH Sulteng also has been using BHB (Bantuan Hukum
Berjalan/Mobile Legal Aid) to reach out the most-needy in the community. They focus on giving, not only
legal assistance, but also legal awareness to community. However, when it is needed, they will provide
legal aid through the litigation process.
Meanwhile, the impact of LEAD Project on strengthening the pro-poor legal aid organization is also shown
by the functioning of LBH Kendari, that was established by the facilitation of LEAD project and has
successfully built 3 legal posts in Kendari area. LEAD project has successfully prepared and strengthened
34

LBH Kendari not only in giving legal information but mainly in providing legal services to the community.
However, the sustainability of LBH Kendari is at risk if LEAD project’s phase-out is not very well planned,
e.i., not considering the transitional period for LBH Kendari to learn to be self-reliance.
Besides, LBH Kendari was experienced a serious problem with their client due to a change in project’s
coverage area of the project’s implementation. During phase I, the coverage area is the whole province of
Southeast Sulawesi, while during the phase II, it only covers Kendari City. One land dispute which was
facilitated by LBH Kendari during the phase I implementation was stopped due to LEAD requirements to
narrow down the area coverage during the phase II implementation. For this reason, LBH Kendari’s
credibility was challenged.
IV. SOME CHALLENGES
35
Main Findings
• Sustainability of local duty bearers. sustainability of LEAD Project Citizen Advisors
is important, while strong commitment from the local justice actors is a challenge.
• CSOs capacity varies. While the magnitude of the various legal cases faced by claim
holders also varies, the presence of CSOs in the village to provide legal service does
not always guarantee that claim holders who access legal assistance from CSOs will
obtain a satisfactory remedy over their grievance
• Community-based legal service. Their legal capacity to provide legal assistance is
still weak, however, they perform effectively in delivering legal knowledge and provide
legal advice to claim holders in the society.
• Satisfactory remedy. The presence of legal service does not automatically fulfill the
hope of local community over the grievance

The highest level of legal empowerment is the provision of legal services to accommodate the
correspondingly increased level of both legal awareness and the legal capacity of the target claim holders
to access justice. The effectiveness of the legal services in the provision of the grievance handling
5.1 SUSTAINABILITY OF LOCAL DUTY BEARERS IS IMPORTANT
One of the big challenges faced by the LEAD Project in the efforts of strengthening claim holder capacity
to access justice is the sustainability of LEAD Project Citizen Advisors. A qualitative finding indicates that
strong commitment from the local justice actors is a challenge. For example, some local cadres who were
trained by KPI, a CSO in Southeast Sulawesi working on gender issues, were having low commitment
toward their role as citizen legal advisor. The reason is due to the fact that they consider the role as an
extra and voluntary job while the poverty requires them to seek for economic activity. Joining LEAD
activities means that they need to put aside some amount of time that can be economically valuable for
them. Some findings from the qualitative research highlight this issue.
Qualitative highlight from North Maluku: Sustainability of paralegal matters
Daurmala has succeeded in strengthening the capacity of target groups such as women from the local communities
who become trained paralegals, such as, in Tobololo (Ternate) and Tobelo (North Halmahera). These trained
paralegals in turn have succeeded in raising the legal awareness among women and men concerning anti domestic
violence as part of gender equality and human rights or more specifically, women rights. These successful efforts do
not mean that they did not face any obstacle in increasing the legal capacity of the local community. The first obstacle
is in recruiting local women to become paralegals since many have their own work and some are not interested. After
several efforts in the first phase of the Lead Project, Daurmala finally succeeded by recruiting women from the local
community who have the potential to become local leaders. The second obstacle is in maintaining these women from
the local community to be trained paralegals. Maintaining active paralegals especially local women is not very easy.
Since becoming a paralegal is considered a service to community, only the real committed and dedicated are willing to
stay.
This is overcome by the examples given by the current trained women paralegals, though few in numbers, are still able
to deliver results in the context of providing concrete legal assistance to victims of violence especially domestic
violence. It is interesting and significant to note that not only women are victims of domestic violence, but there are
also 2 (two) cases in which men are the victims. Both of these victims are men in North Halmahera. But this fact does
not indicate that women are no longer victims of domestic violence. The vast majority of victims of domestic violence
are women. These trained active paralegals are hoping to get more training especially in the field of legal knowledge
and legal practise in order to give legal assistance to victims of domestic violence. The future lies with these few and
dedicated trained local paralegals in assisting the local communities to access of justice.
36

However, sustainability should not only in be viewed within the project framework, it should be viewed in
goal achievement paradigm. The importance of this perspective is suggested by the experience of KPKP-
ST in Central Sulawesi. They claim their strategy as innovative as they try to use existing resources to
achieve their future objective. As they have already had 30 information centers from previous project with
USAID, they started to use those center as the information and complaint center for women under the
LEAD Project. They avoided redundancy by creating new centers and tried to utilized the facilities
available. Therefore, sustainability also can be seen as the smart effort to connect various resources in
different place and time to get one stiff objective.
5.2 CSOs LEGAL CAPACITY NEED TO BE STRENGTHEN
Other challenge is the fact that the capacity of CSO as duty bearers varies. While the magnitude of the
various legal cases faced by claim holders also varies, the presence of CSOs in the village to provide
legal service does not always guarantee that claim holders who access legal assistance from CSOs will
obtain a satisfactory remedy over their grievance. A case study from North Maluku highlights this
problem.
Case Study from North Maluku: CSO’s Lack of Capacity Affect Their Ability to Provide Legal Service
In January 2009 for the first time Bapak Khaidir and several of his fellow vegetable growers from the village of Sasa
which is located next to the city of Ternate, came to the office of LML. They took the initiative since they heard that
LML is providing legal assistance to marginalized groups. They were pleasantly surprised when LML informed them
that there is no financial costs that they have to give. LML is providing legal services for them free of charge.
The next step was village discussion organized by LML were carried out six times in total in the community. The village
discussions were focusing on the legal rights of citizens especially concerning land ownership and land utilization
which were highly relevant to the Sasa vegetable growers community. The content of the village discussions were not
only on legal rights of land ownership and land utilization but also on the litigation processes that they have to face if
they have to undergo formal legal court proceedings.
The community of Sasa vegetable growers comprising of 60 families are locked in land dispute case with the State
phone company Telkomsel. Telkomsel has the legal certificate of land utilization (hak guna bangunan) until October
30th, 2010. Telkomsel has sold the 4 ha of land at the foot of Mount Gamalama. As it turns out Telkomsel has sold
the land to several new owners including Telkomsel’s local employees, and in turn, these local employees have sold it
to others including military officials. The new owners have tried on several occasions in July 2009 to physically evict
the vegetable growers by force. No open conflict has occurred but terror has happened several times. These terror
include mysteriously putting live grenades in front of private homes, stamping on the land fence, and military officials
openly coming to the land site.
The Sasa vegetable growers were called by the local police several times. They were verbally and in some cases,
physically threatened to give false accounts. Both men and women were called by the police to give formal legal
accounts, but strangely, not all the community members were called. Some members were called by the police several
times, some not at all. Their land dispute case is still pending since according to the local Distric Attorney Office, their
legal case is not yet well prepared by the local police. Thus their case is still handled by the local police. No legal court
proceedings have been conducted. The Sasa community is suspicious that they are being put in legal limbo
intentionally by the local legal authorities.
The Sasa community are highly appreciative of the legal awareness, legal capacitiy, and legal services activities
carried out by LML from 2009 until now. Legal councelling and legal assistance were actively provided by LML during
the police interrogations in the past year. However, the community are expecting that LML will not only passively
37

waiting for the next step of the legal proceedings initiated by the local legal authorities but that LML will also take the
initiative and actively proceed with the legal steps necessary to ensure the legal rights of the community in the future.
They are somewhat dissapointed that LML are so far unwilling to fulfill their hopes and expectations. They are hoping
that the legal status of the land will be clear and so they know what kind of future lies for them. This is the reason why
for the Sasa vegetable growers, LML is currently performing as a ‘rescuer’, but not yet as a ‘saviour’ for them.
What does a community need is also crucial and need to be considered by CSO in implementing legal
empowerment at the community level. This capacity is vital for CSO working with the grass-root. Gocefa’s
experience highlights the importance of this. Gocefa has succeeded in strengthening the organizational
capacity of the local fishing community and the local street vendors by establishing cooperatives in
cooperation with the local government. Gocefa is particularly successful in increasing both the personal
capacity and the organizational capacity of the minority community in Tabanga by assisting them in
various endeavours such as, small scale entrepreneurship trainings, in education, in health, and providing
legal assistance in the community land status negotiations. The obstacle is that for the minority
community in Tabanga the most important factor is their land status and it takes a while for Gocefa to
realize this fact. All other assistance are secondary to their first and foremost interest and concern. It is
fortunate that Gocefa finally realizes this and provide the community with legal assistance.
Also important is the capacity of CSO to maintain a balance power relation with its stakeholders. LML, a
CSO working on justice and legal service sector in North Maluku has trained volunteers especially law
students to become legal assistants in providing legal assistance to diverse marginalized groups. LML
has facilitated beneficiaries’ meeting especially for marginalized communities to increase their capacity to
understand the litigation process. LML has continuously assisted the marginalized communities and has
been able to have good relations with the local government though sometimes they have real problems
with the local legal authorities in their efforts to assist the marginalized groups. However, the power
relations within the local political context tend to favor the more privileged and powerful social strata
compared with the socially and economically marginalized groups. This does not give favorable
conditions for LML to provide legal assistance to the marginalized communities.
5.3 LEGAL CAPACITY OF COMMUNITY-BASED LEGAL SERVICE NEED TO BE STRENGTHENED
Although the presence of community-based legal service, which is very much run by LEAD Project Citizen
Advisors, has very much strengthened the capacity of claim holder to access justice, their legal capacity
to provide legal assistance is still weak. They perform effectively in delivering legal knowledge and
provide legal advice to claim holders in the society. However, to be able to provide an effective grievance
handling mechanism, specific legal skill and institutional set-up are needed.
Qualitative highlight from Southeast Sulawesi: The challenges to the effectiveness of Community-based
Organization
38

Due to legal training activities conducted by KPI in every LEAD Project’s village, as many as 25 people in each village,
which consist of 70 percent female and 30 percent male villagers, were trained on gender relation, gender biased in
law (the law of marriage) and domestic violence on women and children. The participants of the legal training were the
embryo of mass organization in the village, called Balai Perempuan (Women House). They later on became the
administrator and legal cadre in the organization that act as the duty bearer that will take necessary actions to provide
remedies for the grievance brought by claim holders
While the existence of Balai Perempuan as information center and a post of complaint was quite effective, it existence
as grievance handling mechanism was not. There are challenges in order to see this institution plays the second role
effectively. First, lack of capacity of the organizers to provide legal assistance. This has led many of legal cases
received by Balai Perempuan could not be facilitated by its organizers or legal cadres, thus needed to be delivered to
KPI head office in Kendari to be handled.
Second, it was difficult to have strong commitment from the legal cadres of Balai Perempuan to perform their role in
providing legal assistance to local people with legal case. The reason is due to the fact that they consider the role as
an extra and voluntary job while the poverty requires them to seek for economic activity. Joining LEAD activities
means that they need to put aside some amount of time that can be economically valuable for them. Therefore, one of
the recommendation is to link the legal empowerment project to economic empowerment one, such as PNPM or
P2KP, to give incentives for them to participate in legal empowerment project.
Third, Balai Perempuan is also not capable yet to do the documentation of success story based on legal cases that
were facilitated, thus there is no written report and evidence of what has been done. Documentations by Balai
Perempuan or KPI officers in the form of film, photo or story narration might become very useful to support legal
awareness activities as well as policy advocacy in the future.
Another highlight comes from the experience of LML, a CSO working in justice and legal service sector.
Basically, LML is highly successful in providing access for local marginalized groups to legal services,
especially, legal consultations for marginalized groups, such as, landless peasants who are hired to
become vegetable growers, in their land dispute with the state phone company, Telkomsel, in Sasa
(Ternate). LML is continously providing legal services, in addition to legal consultations, it also provides
legal assistance through the litigation process. LML is also highly praised in their sustained efforts to
provide legal assistance when conflicts and threats were directed against the local marginalized groups
such as the community in Sasa, Ternate. The obstacle is that LML cannot meet the high expectations of
the local marginalized groups since it cannot actively initiate the legal proceedings to have the legal
dispute finally settled permanently. LML is currently providing legal assistance when the local marginal
groups are involved in legal disputes initiated by their legal opponents. Thus they are giving reactions but
so far no initiative nor pro actively seeking legal convictions. This is the reason why the land dispute case
is still pending and it is still with the local police. No legal proceedings have been initiated yet.
5.4 THE PRESENCE OF LEGAL SERVICE DOES NOT GUARANTEE SATISFACTORY REMEDY
Some qualitative findings suggest that the presence of legal service does not automatically fulfill the hope
of local community over the grievance. The effectiveness of grievance handling mechanism depends on
the several factors. First is the capacity of local CSOs in providing legal assistance. Second is the social
and political context which can influence: a) power relations between CSOs and its key stakeholders,
including state legal apparatus and other government agencies in providing legal services to
beneficiaries, such as indicated by the case study from Sasa, North Maluku; and b) gender power relation
in the community, such as indicated by the case from Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, where a woman with
39

domestic violence case decided to cancel the litigation process in order to avoid her husband being
sentenced to prison due to economic and social considerations.
The first factor is indicated by the case of Gocefa in North Maluku which is not yet able to provide
satisfactory remedies to the beneficiaries. Gocefa has provided legal assistance in assisting the minority
community in Tabanga by assisting them in land status negotiations with the Sultanate of Ternate and the
local government especially the newly elected Vice Mayor of Ternate who is also a close relative of the
current Sultan of Ternate. The current situation is still pending in the sense of there is not yet any litigation
process concerning this land status. Negotiation is still pending since there are several factors which
contribute to this uncertain situation. These factors include the minority community in Tabanga is
factionalized and is not yet able to come to the negotiation process with the Sultanate of Ternate in one
solid voice. The post riots conditions in North Maluku have gradually improved but the relations between
various religious groups are still a sensitive matter in the community.
It was seven years ago in 2003 that Ibu Naomi and her family settled for the first time in the village of
Tabanga, which lies ‘behind the mountain Gamalama’, several miles outside the city of Ternate. She is a ‘newcomer’
in the village but it does not take a long time before her husband and herself become leaders in the Christian
community of Tabanga. She is a Christian from Paningbar, Southeast Maluku and she is a teacher by profession.
Well articulated and relatively comparatively well educated, it is not a surprise that she quickly becomes the ‘new’
The small Christian community of Tabanga originated from Halmahera and they first settled in Tabanga circa
1948. They were invited by the previous Sultan of Ternate and were granted land for settlement which was
documented in a form of a formal letter from the then Sultan to the then Village Head of Sulamadaha (Tabanga is part
of neighboring Sulamadaha). Unfortunately, the original letter was lost and no other legal document existed. For more
than five decades (fifty years) the small Christian community of Tabanga was able to coexist peacefully and
harmoniously with their surrounding Moslem neighbors. This community was even given the privilege by the Sultan of
Ternate to carry out the honorable role of carrying the Sultan in his royal chair for the weekly Fridays’ prayers from the
Sultan’s palace to the Sultan’s Mosque.
Unfortunately, in the year 1999, came the violent clashes and social political unrest between the Moslem and
the Christian communities which first originated from Ambon in Central Maluku and quickly spread to North Maluku as
well. The Christian community were afraid for their lives and they quickly left their settlement in Tabanga and fled to
neighboring areas such as Manado in North Sulawesi. They came back in 2003 because they were invited to return by
the Sultan of Ternate and The Mayor of Ternate who instructed the Village Head of Sulamadaha to request the
Christian community of Tabanga to return to their former village. To their ‘surprise’, after they returned, this small
community realized that their land has become much smaller in comparison to the time before they were forced to flee
their village. During the period of 1999 till 2003, a large portion of their land was settled by their Moslem neighbors or
newcomers to the area.
This change in their land settlement made this community aware of the necessity and the urgency to have a
legal document concerning the status of their land. In their efforts to claim their legal right of the land, they have made
several efforts including negotiating with the previous mayor of Ternate and the local village head. Both of them
advised the community to negotiate with the Sultanate of Ternate since this land is owned by the Sultan of Ternate.
However, when they came to the BPN (Badan Pertanahan Nasional), the StateLand Agency, they were advised to
make a land certificate since based on State Law, there is no longer customary land ownership. In order to get a land
certificate, the community has to get a letter of endorsement from the local village head. But this village official was
unwilling to do so, out of deference for the Sultan of Ternate. And thus they came ‘full circle’. The most recent
development in their negotiation efforts with the Sultanate, the community has the pledge of the current Vice Mayor of
Ternate who is a relative of The Sultan to discuss and find a legal solution for their land status.
Until now there is not yet any concrete positive development in negotiations since the small Christian
community is factionalized within itself. Ibu Naomi is considered as a ‘newcomer’ and not from the original families who
first settled in Tabanga in circa 1948. Though well organized and well regarded by Gocefa who is providing her and
the community with various legal awareness, legal capacity, and legal services activities in several sectors such as,
40

fisheries, health, education, and small scale entrepreneuship, she is not universally accepted as the leader nor the
representative of the Christian community in Tabanga. This factionalization made it difficult for this community to
negotiate as one voice with the Sultanate of Ternate concerning their claim for the legal status of the land in Tabanga.
It is also interesting that Gocefa has made significant and important various activities across sectors to
strengthen the institutional capacities of this particular community but the most important concern of this community
still remain the legal status of their land. It is precisely this concern that Gocefa has not yet succeeded in meeting the
high expectations of the small Christian minority of Tabanga.
41

MAIN FINDINGS INTEGRATED - 221210

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to MAIN FINDINGS INTEGRATED - 221210

More from Rissalwan Lubis

MAIN FINDINGS INTEGRATED - 221210