Indonesian Civil Society Groups Concerned Over Government’s Response to UN Special Rapporteur Reports Palm Oil Industry Violating Rights

Joint Press Release, 18 March 2025

The undersigned civil society organizations want to express their concern about the recent response of the Indonesian government to an October 2024 letter sent by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and eight other UN Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups, regarding environmental and human rights violations by Indonesian palm oil company PT Astra Agro Lestari (PT AAL).[1]

The letters sent by the UN Special Rapporteurs highlight structural human rights violations in the industrial palm oil sector in Indonesia, and specifically adverse environmental and human rights impacts by PT AAL, including intimidation and criminalization of environmental human rights defenders, violations of the land rights of communities and environmental destruction.

It is disappointing that the response of the Indonesian government to these UN officials does not take into account the substantial publicly available evidence of the violations. Instead, the government has categorically denies the allegations presented by the UN and presents limited information in favor of the company. It appears to speak directly on behalf of the company, utilizing the exact arguments used by the company in previous public correspondence.  

This does not take into account the publicly available evidence, published by Friends of the Earth groups[2] and others. In November 2024, the NGO Transformation For Justice (TUK) Indonesia filed a lawsuit against Bank Mandiri and co-defendants PT Astra Agro Lestari and its subsidiary PT Agro Nusa Abadi, because of Bank Mandiri’s investments in PT Astra Agro Lestari and the related environmental and social harms.[3]

The response provided by the government was written by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the UN, WTO and other international organizations and is inconsistent with previous communication from Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning, the provincial government of Central Sulawesi, and the Central Sulawesi provincial legislature regarding the operations of PT AAL.

Furthermore, the Indonesian government’s response incorrectly accuses civil society organizations of failing to constructively engage on the issue of PT AAL. WALHI and community representatives have held meetings with government officials in Central Sulawesi, the Ministries of Environment and Forestry and Agrarian Affairs, and the Presidential Office to address PT AAL’s adverse impacts and achieve meaningful resolutions to protracted conflicts through the return to communities of land confiscated without consent.  

In light of this, the organizations below call on the Indonesian government to:

• Ensure continuation of constructive engagement with civil society organizations and impacted communities to address land conflicts and rights violations related to agrarian conflicts and specifically PT AAL’s palm oil operations;
• Establish a special task force through the provincial government of Central Sulawesi alongside relevant national agencies to resolve ongoing conflicts, address environmental harms, review reported irregularities in the issuing of permits, investigate allegations of intimidation, violence, and criminalization by PT AAL, and return to communities land taken by PT AAL without consent;
• Ensure that any future responses to UN mandate holders are developed with the participation of civil society and affected human rights defenders and communities

Signed by

WALHI
Milieudefensie
Friends of the Earth (FOE) US
Friends of the Earth  (FOE) EWNI
Nusantara Traditional Communities Alliance (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara) AMAN
Yayasan PUSAKA Bentala Rakyat
Transformasi Untuk Keadilan (TUK) Indonesia

Notes

[1] https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TmSearch/Results
[2] https://en.milieudefensie.nl/news/aal-illusions-of-progress-update-november-2024.pdf
[3] https://forestsandfinance.org/news/tuk-indonesia-files-lawsuit-against-bank-mandiri-over-esg-violations/

Source Documents

Download the documents below:

Letter from the UN Special Rapporteurs (UNSR)
1. UNSR_Food_AAL_122024
2. UNSR_Food_AI_122024
3. UNSR_Food_China_122024
4. UNSR_Food_Indonesia_122024
5. UNSR_Food_JM_122024

Response of the Indonesian government:
6. Letter From Indonesia Gov

This post is based on https://www.walhi.or.id/kekhawatiran-masyarakat-sipil-atas-tanggapan-pemerintah-indonesia-baru-baru-ini-kepada-pelapor-khusus-pbb-bilingual.

In related news:

• https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/indonesias-militarized-crackdown-on-illegal-forest-use-sparks-human-rights-concerns/
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.2023.2215261#abstract
• https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/06/20/too-high-price/human-rights-cost-indonesian-militarys-economic-activities
• https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/future-indonesia-s-green-industrial-policy
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_Agro_Lestari