FASTEN
(Fight Against Stigmatization of Ex-Convict)
SCORP CIMSA UI
Human Rights Day, an annually celebrated event to raise public awareness about people’s rights. This year, we brought up the issue about the rights and discrimination against ex-convicts. Surveys conducted around the time that some ex-convicts were about to be released depicts that 71.2% respondents disagreed on the idea of releasing ex-convicts and 91.5% respondents concerned that the release could lead to new crimes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 The situation worsened by the fact that there is no guarantee for ex-convicts to get new jobs. It would be very difficult for them, to whom labeled as ‘ex-convict’ to find jobs and be accepted by public.2
The stigma needs to be fought and the discrimination needs to be stopped. Therefore, we held this event called FASTEN: Fight Against Stigmatization of Ex-Convict. The sole purpose of this event is to raise public awareness about the rights and the discrimination against ex-convict.
FASTEN is a talk show via Zoom and Youtube by SCORP CIMSA UI. Targeting the public audience, this event was attended by a total of 150 participants from various regions in Indonesia. The guest speakers at this event were Shaleh Al Ghifari, public defender at Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Jakarta; Batara Bisuk, IFMSA Program Coordinator for Ethics and Human Rights in Health 2020-2021; Elven Aprilnico, sociopreneur and founder of Titik Balik Coffee Roasters; Gusti Made Dwiadnya, ex-convict and founder of Rumah Bali Hidroponik; and H. M. Fajar Surasno, National Officer on Human Rights and Peace CIMSA Indonesia 2017-2018 as the moderator. The event went well despite being conducted online.
After the event, we evaluated the impact this event has brought through a test conducted before and after the talk show. There was an 9.86% increase of participants’ knowledge about the issue and 3.2% increase of participants’ attitude towards ex-convicts. From the satisfaction questionnaire, we also found out that 67.2% participants became more interested in human rights issue and most of them were very satisfied with this event, with the average score of 3.69/4.
On this note, we hope that this event could give a greater impact to reinforce the rights of ex-convicts. Let’s humanize human, we are all humans after all.
1Kurnianingrum TP. Kontroversi pembebasan narapidana di tengah pandemi covid-19. Kajian Singkat Terhadap Isu Aktual dan Strategis [Internet]. 2020 Apr [cited 2020 Aug 13];12(8): 2-4. Available from: http://berkas.dpr.go.id/puslit/files/info_singkat/Info%20Singkat-XII-8-II-P3DI-April-2020-214.pdf
2Akhyar Z, Matnuh H, Najibuddin M. Persepsi masyarakat terhadap mantan narapidana di Desa Benua Jingah Kecamatan Barabai Kabupaten Hulu Sungai Tengah. Jurnal Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan [Internet]. 2014 May [cited 2020 Aug 13];4(7). Available from: https://ppjp.ulm.ac.id/journal/index.php/pkn/article/view/439/362
