Indonesian Civil Society and Human Rights Advocacy in ASEAN: Power and Normative Struggles

This book focuses on how Indonesian civil society organisations interact with ASEAN to shape human rights institutionalisation in the region. Using Bourdieu-inspired constructivist IR as an analytical lens, the book argues that there are pre-reflexive norms that dominate the field of interaction in the region that shape the way civil society organisations operate. This has resulted in the diverging advocacy practices, thus complicating human rights institutionalisation process in ASEAN.
“Randy Nandyatama offers a pathbreaking study of ASEAN’s human rights turn, as seen through the lens of Indonesian civil society actors and human rights advocates. In his application of Bourdieu, he offers an innovative and ambitious approach to understanding human rights norms across the region, using the case of Indonesia to explore engagement practices among civil society organisations, and at the national and ASEAN regional levels. A highly recommended addition to the literature!”
— Assoc. Prof. Anthony J. Langlois, Flinders University, Australia
“Constructivist studies of ASEAN regionalism can be as state-centric as their realist counterparts. Randy Nandyatama offers a refreshing re-examination of that orthodoxy. Focusing on human rights advocacy by civil society organizations in Indonesia, Nandyatama’s fascinating book explores their complex negotiations with the pre-existing ‘doxa’ in ASEAN regionalism—the legal–rational and socio[1]cultural norms of the “ASEAN Way”—that shape the conditions of normative and political possibility for human rights in Southeast Asia. I highly recommend it”.
— Professor See Seng Tan, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“Indonesian democracy remains flawed as long as the human rights of its minority groups are threatened. Yet the book examines newer dynamics spurred by Indonesian CSO attempts at transnational advocacy –in a region with an ambiguous relationship with human rights – especially when its principles infringe on the interests of states and powerful domestic actors. These dynamics are deciphered through detailed empirical analysis and distinctive use of a Constructivist IR approach influenced by Bourdieu’s sociology”.
— Prof. Vedi Hadiz, University of Melbourne, Australia