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Nursyahbani Katjasungkana

A native of Jakarta, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (Nur) graduated from Law Faculty of Airlangga University (1978) where she specialized in Criminal law (1979).  She holds post graduate diplomas in International Comparative  Sexual Orientation Law from Leiden University (2012) and in Bridging the Research-Policy Divide from National Centre of Epidemiology of Australian National University (2012). In July 2019, she was granted an Honorary Doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University for her long standing works on Human Rights and Feminism.

Nur is the co-founder of APIK (Indonesian Legal Aid Association for Women) and currently sits on the Chair of Board of Directors of Indonesian Legal Aid Association for Women and also serves as Chair of Board of Trustee of Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, a leading women and human rights organization in Indonesia.  Nur was  Commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (1998-2004) and the first Secretary General of the Indonesia Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy (1998-2003). She was also  member of  World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development (2013-2015). She has long standing experiences in training on feminist legal theory including gender and sexual rights. 

She was the  country prosecutor of the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military  Sexual Slavery (2000), General Coordinator of The International Tribunal of 1965 Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2015), a member of the panel of judges at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Myanmar (2017) and a member of panel judges at Aban (Iran) Tribunal.

Nur served as a member of People Consultative Assembly (1999-2004) and  was elected Member of Parliament (2004-2009) in Indonesia.  She directed the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (1980-1993) and was Presidium of Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI, 1996-1999).  She was an active member of the board of directors with Sexual and Bodily Rights Coalition in Moslem Society based in Jordan (2007-2014).  In 2011, Nur co-founded Partnership for Good Governance, and chaired its Executive Board until 2013. She is a consultant on the women’s legal rights and has been involved in several fact-finding teams on gross human rights violation during the Soeharto dictatorship. 

She was also a magazines and newspaper columnist and had published 5 books on legal and violence against women issues and implementation of CEDAW.  She had published articles and book chapters and presented research papers at international and national conferences.  Her essays entitled “Indonesia in the Grip of Fundamentalism : Legal Issues and Women Movement Responses” was published in The Future of Asian Feminism in Confronting Fundamentalism, Conflicts and Neo-Liberalism (Cambridge Scholar Publishing,2012). Nur’s essay “The Implementation on Domestic Violence Act in Indonesia” appeared in “Family Ambiguity and The Domestic Violence in Asia (Sussex Academic Press, 2013). She co-authored “Of Heteronormativity, Passionate Aesthetics and Symbolic Subversion in Asia” (Sussex Academic Press, 2015), Creeping Criminalisation of LGBT in Indonesia (OutRight International 2017), Propaganda and Genocide in Indonesia: Imagined Evil (Routledge 2018). 

For her commitment and work, she was nominated as one of A Thousand Noble Prize (2006). In 2007 and 2008, GLOBE ASIA magazine placed Nursyahbani Katjasungkana 51st of 99 Powerful Women in Indonesia.