The semi-autonomous body Solidarity of Law Students for Indonesia (SMHI) Faculty of Law 51¶¯Âþ (FH UNAIR) again held an Advocacy School on Saturday (29/10/2022). School of Advocacy Vol. This 3rd time it brought the theme of public advocacy and an introduction to alternative dispute resolution in advocacy. The webinar, held online through the Zoom Meeting platform, presented two speakers, Anindya Shabrina Prasetiyo, S.H., and Haidar Adam, S.H., LL.M.
The first speaker, Anindya, presented material on public advocacy. According to Anindya, advocacy means working with people or the community to support them in strengthening voices regarding general issues or particular issues, which then aims to increase public awareness of these issues to mobilize others to take specific actions.
“Advocacy is important to influence policy development and to strengthen strategy. For example, information collected from a community related to the issue to be voiced can be heard by policymakers or the government or to formulate a policy,” said Anindya.
Anindya also explained the basic principles for conducting public advocacy, including social investigation, understanding common perspectives, honesty, sustainability, and inclusion.
“To conduct social investigations or analysis, we can write legal opinions, political analysis, public articles, and others. In addition, there are forms of public advocacy such as public campaigns in the form of scientific seminars, speeches, or talk shows, as well as visual campaigns in the form of infographics or reels,” he explained.
He emphasized that to achieve public advocacy, it is necessary to build alliances, lobby policymakers, and influence the policy.
The second speaker, Haidar, presented material on introducing alternative dispute resolution in advocacy. Haidar explained that alternative dispute resolution arises from criticism of the dispute resolution situation in court, which always presents both parties to the dispute, delays, litigation costs, overcrowding, openness, psychological impact, and inefficient judicial processes.
“The purpose of this alternative dispute resolution is to reduce congestion in settlement of cases in court. Court fees are also high, and the results are often unsatisfactory. So, alternative dispute resolution is helpful in improving public order in the dispute resolution process and providing opportunities for the achievement of dispute resolution that results in decisions that all parties can accept, “said Haidar.
Haidar said in Law Number 30 of 1999 alternative dispute resolution includes consultation, negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and expert judgment. Consultation is the act of a person seeking advice or opinion from an expert such as a legal advisor. The difference with specialist assessment is that expert judgment is carried out by an academic.
The most common form of alternative dispute resolution is mediation because mediation brings the two disputing parties together to negotiate and make mutual agreements. The agreement is then stated in an underhand deed made before a notary or based on a court order.
“In essence, the role of alternative dispute resolution in advocacy is to have an orientation to resolve problems by reducing the potential for further conflicts, providing opportunities for parties to actively participate in the process of seeking justice, facilitating access to justice, and being able to become a medium in community empowerment. ” concluded Haidar.
