The Experiences of Religious Courts in Providing Legal Aid was Presented in Iran
Teheran | www.badilag.net
Indonesian Religious Courts got an appreciation from the international circles due to their experiences in providing legal aid for the poor. In a workshop held by the United Nations Offices on Drug and Crime (UNODC) in cooperation with the Iranian judiciary in Teheran (March 3rd, 2014), the former Director General of Badilag who currently serves as the Senior Adviser of AIPJ (Indonesia Australia Partnership for Justice), Wahyu Widiana was invited to be the speaker and talked about the experiences of Badilag in providing legal aid for the poor.
Wahyu Widiana was one of three speakers from outside of Iran who were invited. Others were Valerie Lebaux, chief of justice section from the head office of UNODC of Vienna, Austria and Justice Duncan Mlambo, Chief of Legal Aid South Africa.
According to Sefat Shemarani, the sub-national program coordinator of UNODC, there are two main goals of the one day workshop, namely to inform the participants on recent development of the providing of legal services in international level and to provide input for the legal enforcement authorities on the best practices in legal aid services in several countries, especially on how it operates.
.In his paper entitled The Provision of Legal Aid in Court: Badilag’s Experiences, Wahyu Widiana delivered about the development and implementation of laws related to the legal aid issues, such as Law No. 16 of 2011 on Legal Aid, Law No. 48 of 2009 on Judicial Power and other related laws.
Wahyu also delivered about the implementation of legal aid services in the courts, especially in the religious courts, based on the Supreme Court Circular Letter Num. 10 of 2010, which is now substituted by the Supreme Court Regulation Num. 1 of 2014, which comprises of fee discharge, circuit courts and legal aid post.
Datas of the three programs from year to year were also presented. The datas showed that the recipients of legal aid tends to increase each year.
The circuit court held by the religious court of Central Jakarta in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia which was notably an integrated service with Indonesian Consulate General as the marriage registrar abroad was also expressed.
In the end of his paper, Wahyu Widiana concluded that Indonesia nowadays has a strong commitment in providing the legal aid for the poor, women, disabilities, and the people live in remote areas.
[Mohammad Noor]