The ICRC regional delegation in Jakarta
04-06-2013 Overview
The ICRC established a regional delegation in Indonesia in 1979, but it had been working in the country since the 1940s. The delegation, which is based in Jakarta, also covers Timor-Leste. Its humanitarian activities are conducted in close cooperation with the Red Cross Societies of Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
The ICRC provides support to the government of Indonesia in promoting respect for international humanitarian law among the country’s armed forces, including its peacekeepers deployed abroad. The organization also conducts training courses and seminars on international human rights law for Indonesia’s police forces.
The ICRC works to increase knowledge of humanitarian law and promote humanitarian values in Indonesia and the region by holding events organized around specific subjects and by engaging regularly with various audiences: university lecturers, students, diplomats, national and regional authorities, prominent think tanks and religious leaders.
Jakarta is an important political and diplomatic hub in South-East Asia, the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The ICRC works to strengthen cooperation with various ASEAN member States and agencies, with a view to raising awareness of and addressing major regional humanitarian issues, as well as highlighting the importance of principled humanitarian action.
The ICRC has been present in Timor-Leste since 2002, when the country became independent. It is supporting the creation of a national mechanism to clarify the fate of people unaccounted for between 1975 and 1999. Meanwhile, the delegation provides the Timor-Leste Red Cross with training and technical, material and financial support to strengthen its capacities in emergency preparedness, restoring family links and the promotion of humanitarian law and humanitarian principles. The ICRC also visits people being held in the country’s prisons.
