Norm Reconciliation in Indonesia

Abstract

This Chapter is the first of three case studies that illustrate response to norm conflict. Chapter Three assesses the Indonesian response to norm conflict in situations of gross human rights violations in Myanmar. It shows that in light of a domestic expectation for norm compliance with human rights protection and an equally strong domestic desire to uphold the non-interference norm in cases of territorial disintegration, the government employed a strategy of norm reconciliation. To reconcile the conflicting norms, the Indonesian government reduced the meaning and application of the non-interference norm to instances involving a secessionist dimension. While generally acting in accordance with the human rights protection norm, it remained silent in cases in which a country’s human rights violations were related to a struggle for secession or involved a risk of territorial disintegration, such as the later stages of the Saffron Revolution and the Rakhine Riots in Myanmar.