In 2011, Indonesia adopted a law on legal aid which includes a national budget for legal aid providers to deliver access to justice and legal aid services to the poor. However, there is a lack of legal aid lawyers and organizations throughout the country, and lawyers do not necessarily have the sufficient skills for delivering legal aid services with a human rights, gender equality and social justice perspective. Many organizations also deal with a limited administrative capacity and struggle to meet the requirements in conducting legal aid reimbursement. Another key challenge is improving institutional mechanisms to ensure the quality of legal assistance, for example through the development of minimum standards of legal aid services, as well as monitoring and evaluation of legal aid service delivery.
The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the Indonesian Legal Resources Center, and the Indonesian Legal Aid Association for Women are implementing a project together to expand access to justice and strengthen the capacity and quality of legal aid services. The project will seek to increase the number of legal aid lawyers, build the capacity of legal aid organizations – including their capacity to handle gender-based cases - and improve legal aid policy to facilitate women’s needs for legal aid.
The project is funded through the Indonesia-Netherlands Rule of Law Fund of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Jakarta, which is managed by IDLO.