During the last 20 years, human rights issues including freedom of religion and belief have become mainstream in Indonesia’s law and constitution. Yet, there are several challenges that need to be faced. The challenges are not only related to the enforcement but also the harmonisation with other laws, especially with several previous laws considered irrrelevant but are still applicable in this recent situation. On the other side, numerous efforts of advocacy have been done by activists, legal practitioners and academics. Nevertheless, in dealing with this current situation,there is still a need to develop the knowledge related to freedom of religion and belief in Indonesia.
Program Fellowship Kebebasan Berkeyakinan dan Beragama or KBB (Fellowship Programme of Religious Freedom or Belief) is a program initiated by The Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies, Graduate School Gadjah Mada University; Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI); Centre for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration – Universitas Jember, dan Serikat Pengajar Hak Asasi Manusia (Sepaham). The two main aims of this program are : 1) strengthening freedom of religion or belief issues at the university level, especially in the Faculty of Law; and 2) strengthening interdisciplinary research related to freedom of religion or belief.
The KBB Fellowship program started in 2019. After passing the paper selection process, there are 14 selected fellows who have been working for eight months since June 2019. The first stage of the fellowship consisted of a KBB workshop in Yogyakarta between 1-6 of July 2019, then they continued their research funded by KBB. For the next process, they presented their research at The Konferensi Kebebasan Berkeyakinan dan Beragama on the 13th October 2019 in Jember, East Java.
