The Religious Courts Get an International Publicity

Jakarta, Badilag.net |04-01-2012|

The recent achievements of the Religious Courts are now well known by international public. They are published in the International Journal of Court Administration (IJCA), in 7^th edition, December 2011. This journal belongs to International Association for Court Administration (IACA) which is located in Louisville, Kentucky, America.

The journal publishes a summary of the book titled Courting Reform: Indonesia’s Islamic Courts and Justice for the Poor which is the work of Cate Sumner and Prof Tim Lindsey. The book was published in Australia and launched in Sydney, December 2010.

The Interest of IACA to the Religious Courts

In his email sent to Wahyu Widiana (the Director General of the Religious Courts), Markus B Zimmer, Advisory Council Chair of IACA stated that he was very interested in the progress made by the Religious Courts.

Markus Zimmer who had wide working experiences in 25 countries knew more on the Religious Courts after he read a booklet written by Cate Sumner and Prof Tim.

“I had previously read Cate and Tim’s booklet and was so impressed by it …,” he said in his email sent to Wahyu Widiana.

According to him, in other occasion, the Religious Courts deserved an international publicity.

He furthermore said that the publication would be very important for other countries to know and learn from the Religious Courts.

“It provides important information regarding religious courts, and I am hopeful that readers in other countries with religious courts will read and learn from it,” he said in his email.

Markus B Zimmer, as one of IACA founder, has visited the Directorate General of the Religious Courts (Badilag) for several times. He also visited some Religious Courts including RC of North Jakarta and RC of Balikpapan.

From left: David Sabin Anderson, Wahyu Widiana and Markus B Zimmer in 8th EMC

He was invited by Badilag to deliver his keynote address in 8^th English Meeting Club, April 2011. His presentation had successfully attracted the participants when he discussed on problems of access to justice in many countries.

(Rahmat Arijaya)