Indonesian Constitutional Court held the 2nd International Symposium
01 October 2018

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia successfully held the 2nd  Indonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium (ICCIS) 2018 in Tentrem Hotel, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, with “The Constitutional Court and Constitutionalism in Political Dynamics” as the theme.

 

Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Anwar Usman, gave his remarks in the opening ceremony on Monday, 1 October 2018. He stated that the constitutional courts and equivalent institutions have to do its role as the protector of the constititonal rights of the people and as the guardian of the constitution. However, these two functions are sometimes contrasting with one another.

 

“Political interest is a representation of the majority interest, but the protection of the constitutional rights cannot be abandoned as it is also a part of human rights, as well as guarding the constitutionality in the country. That being said, it is the responsibility of the Court to make a decision when those things are clashing.”  

 

He also explained that the influence of political dynamics or political interest to the Court in dealing with its functions are quite a common phenomenon in many countries, as the Court has a very important position and strategic roles, however at the same time the Court also has several limitations. Therefore, this event is intended to bring the topic in the forum to be discussed, so the participants can each learn about the practice and/or case study from different countries.

 

Other than that, the Secretary General of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. M. Guntur Hamzah, also gave his report regarding the role of the Court as the Permanent Secretariat of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions (AACC), “In this event, we will officially launch the AACC website which had been designed to be a platform that is able to connect all the member countries of AACC.”


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