THE LEGAL EFFECTIVENESS OF HANDLING GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE SEMANGGI TRAGEDY (1998 – 1999)

Abstract

The Semanggi Tragedies I (1998) and II (1999) marked two major

episodes of violence during Indonesia’s political transition from the New Order

regime to the Reform era. Both incidents resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds

of injuries, thereby falling into the category of alleged gross human rights violations.

However, more than two decades later, their handling has shown no significant

progress. This study aims to examine the historical context of these events, the

position and responsibility of the state in the human rights violations that occurred,

and the extent to which the legal response to the Semanggi Tragedies aligns with

Soerjono Soekanto’s Theory of Legal Effectiveness. The study employs a normative

juridical method with qualitative descriptive analysis. The data used are entirely

secondary, including legislation, official parliamentary records, documents from the

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), civil society reports,

academic literature, and relevant media coverage. Data were collected through

library research and systematically analyzed to produce deductive conclusions

regarding the effectiveness of legal enforcement in the Semanggi cases. The findings

show that the handling of the Semanggi cases fails to meet the indicators of legal

effectiveness. In terms of regulation, there exists a duality of interpretation

regarding investigative authority between Komnas HAM and the Attorney General’s

Office. From the perspective of legal apparatuses, inconsistencies persist, including

statements from the Attorney General that contradict the mandate of the Human

Rights Court Law. Meanwhile, evidentiary infrastructure has weakened due to the

lengthy passage of time and the limited availability of forensic evidence. Lastly,public responses reflect a low level of trust in formal human rights enforcement

mechanisms. Overall, this study underscores that the handling of the Semanggi

Tragedies remains far from effective and requires comprehensive reform to ensure

legal certainty and justice for the victims.