EDITORIAL The False Promise of Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016? Susan Kneebone 1, *, Antje Missbach 2 and Balawyn Jones 1 1 Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia and 2 Professor, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany *Corresponding author. E-mail: susan.kneebone@unimelb.edu.au Abstract In this Introduction, Indonesia’s approach towards refugee protection is contextualized historically and regionally in light of the enactment of Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 concerning the Treatment of Refugees (PR). In particular, we describe the legal and policy framework for refugee protection in Indonesia and analyze its underlying norms and values, including the consti- tutional right to asylum. We explain how the legal framework competes with Law No. 6 of 2011 on Immigration, which facilitates a discretionary, securitized, and ‘humanitarian’ approach to refugee policy, which is inconsistent with Indonesia’s legal responsibilities. In conclusion, we assess both the challenges and opportunities provided by the PR. Keywords: Indonesia; refugee law and policy; refugee protection; immigration law and humanitarianism 1. Introduction The focus of this Special Issue is Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 concerning the Treatment of Refugees adopted on 31 December 2016 (“the PR”). The PR, which implements Law No. 37 of 1999 on Foreign Relations, 1 is an important development in Indonesia’s distinctive response to refugee issues at both a national and a regional (Southeast Asian—“SEA”) level. Many advocates for refugee rights hoped for enactment of a regulation that would progress the rights of refugees and build on the perceived promise of Indonesia’s laws, by implementing the constitutional right to asylum in Indonesia’s Constitution. 2 However, as Enny Soeprapto (former Indonesian Human Rights Commissioner—“Komnas HAM”—2002–07) explains in his Foreword, in 2013, policy-makers decided to enact a Presidential Regulation 3 rather than to provide a right to seek asylum through new laws and policies. The articles in this Issue critically assess the contribution of the PR to the advancement of refugee rights and norms, and discuss the challenges and opportunities it creates for the care of refugees in Indonesia. This Issue arises from a workshop held in Jakarta on 20–21 March 2019. 4 It is an outcome of an Australia Research Council (ARC) project on © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society. 1 Law No. 37 (1999) on Foreign Relations, Art. 27(2). 2 The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Art. 28G(2). See Dewansyah, Dramanda, & Mulyana (2017). 3 See Table 2 in Suyatna et al.’s article in this Special Issue for the hierarchy of legislation in Indonesia’s legal system. 4 The workshop on “Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 on the Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges” was sponsored by the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, Asian Journal of Law and Society (2021), 1–20 doi:10.1017/als.2021.2 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/als.2021.2 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 3.235.143.148, on 22 Sep 2021 at 10:28:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at