JAKARTA — Indonesian civil society groups are challenging a controversial law they say enables forced evictions, weakens environmental protections, and encourages elite-driven megaprojects at the expense of ordinary citizens. Two major coalitions of NGOs and affected individuals have filed separate lawsuits with the Constitutional Court. Both suits, known as judicial reviews, tale aim at Indonesia’s sweeping 2020 “omnibus law,” which critics say facilitates environmentally harmful and socially unjust megaprojects across the country. The omnibus law, formally the Job Creation Law, was introduced by then-President Joko Widodo as a deregulation package intended to attract investment. Passed in October 2020, it amended more than 70 existing laws covering sectors such as labor, environment, and business licensing. Despite near-universal opposition from environmental groups, labor unions, academics and students, the government pushed the law through parliament in just 167 days, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics warn it rolled back protections for workers and the environment in favor or business interests. In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled the law “procedurally unconstitutional” because of the way it was rushed through, citing a lack transparency and public consultation. Instead of scrapping the law, however, Widodo issued a regulation to reintroduce it. Parliament ratified this version in March 2023 — effectively relegitimizing a law previously deemed unconstitutional, and reigniting legal and civil society opposition, including the two new judicial reviews. Former Indonesian President Joko Widodo started his second day of visit in the Nusantara capital city by directly reviewing the Presidential Palace area, on Monday morning,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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