We, civil society across the globe - including the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH) - strongly condemn and denounce the acid attack against the Deputy Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Andrie Yunus, on Thursday, 12 March 2026 in the Salemba area of Central Jakarta, Indonesia.
The attack was carried out by two unidentified individuals on a motorcycle by throwing a dangerous chemical liquid directly at him before fleeing. This caused Andrie Yunus to suffer severe burns to 20 percent of his body, including his face, eyes, chest, and both hands. The assault occurred shortly after Andrie Yunus had recorded a podcast on remilitarization and the judicial review of the recently revised Military Law at the office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
This attack strongly indicates a planned and coordinated act. The perpetrators deliberately doused Yunus with a hazardous chemical into vital organs, including on his face and respiratory tract, indicating that the attack was intended to take the victim’s life. Therefore, we believe that this incident must be treated as attempted murder and must be investigated thoroughly and transparently by law enforcement authorities.
This attack cannot be separated from the context of the victim’s work as a human rights defender who has consistently exposed abuses of power, human rights violations, and the shrinking civic space in Indonesia. In the days leading up to the incident, the victim had also continuously received various forms of intimidation, including suspicious calls from unknown numbers. This practice indicates systematic efforts to spread fear among those actively engaged in advocacy and the defence of human rights.
Furthermore, Andrie Yunus is one of the members of the Fact-Finding Commission (KPF) who, over the past five months, has conducted an independent investigation into the Indonesian Nationwide protests and unrest in August 2025.
Through extensive investigations, the KPF report found that the security forces had used force disproportionately, conducted mass arrests, committed alleged torture, and the large-scale criminalization against activists and civilians. The events of August 2025 also resulted in about 13 deaths, marking one of the largest waves of repression against civil society since the Indonesian Reformation era in 1998.
Andrie Yunus has protested against the considered non-transparent process of discussing revisions to the Indonesian Military Law. On 15 March 2025, together with other members of the civil society coalition, he forced his way into the parliamentary meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta to interrupt the closed-door discussion of revisions to the military law between the government and the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia. This action was carried out in protest against the untransparent nature of the deliberation process, which excluded public participation and risked reviving the military’s dual-function doctrine of the pre-1998 dictatorship.
This assault must be seen as part of a pattern of intimidation against human rights defenders and a systematic effort to silence those who dare to reveal the truth, challenge impunity, criticize those in power, and fight for justice. If a human rights defender can be brutally assaulted in a public space in the nation’s capital, this demonstrates how fragile state protection is for citizens who fight for justice and how narrow the safe space for human rights advocacy has become in Indonesia.
It is also deeply regrettable that human rights defenders in Indonesia are facing attacks and intimidation at the time when Indonesia is the current President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. This contradiction shows the failure of the Government of Indonesia to comply with its international obligations to protect human rights defenders.
Thus, we urge:
- The Indonesian Police to carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the attack, identify all those responsible, and bring the latter to justice in accordance with international standards and existing domestic regulations;
- The Indonesian Attorney General to immediately prosecute those who carried out the attack and those who commissioned it based on the thorough and impartial investigation result;
- The Indonesian Witness and Victims Protection Agency (LPSK) to guarantee and ensure the safety and protection of Andrie Yunus and his family, especially throughout his recovery;
- The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to ensure the safety and protection of Andrie Yunus, his family, and Witnesses in relation to his work as a human rights defender, as stated in the Commission Regulation Number 5 of 2015 on Procedure of Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Norms and Regulation Standard of the Commission Number 4 of 2021 on Protection for Human Rights Defenders;
- The Government of Indonesia to guarantee the safety and protection of Andrie Yunus and his family in relation to his work as an advocate, as stated in Law Number 18 of 2003 on Advocates; and
- The Government of Indonesia to protect all human rights defenders, as guaranteed by Article 28C (2) of the 1945 Constitution, Article 100 of Law Number 39 of 1999 on Human Rights, and by the 1998 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
The undersigned organizations and individuals also call for international solidarity, to continuously monitor this case as well as the recent disturbing climate of criminalization and threats towards focal individuals in Indonesia, to urge the Indonesian authorities to guarantee their safety and civic space, and to publicly oppose attacks and terrorism against human rights defenders, as terror against one human rights defender is terror against an entire society.
We will continue to monitor this case until the perpetrators and those responsible are brought to justice, as there cannot be any space left for terror against human rights defenders in a democratic country.
18 March 2026,
