1. PHR, Legal Assistants for the People and PHR, Assistants for People’s Law
So far, besides the word “Assistant,” two other words are attached, namely “Law” and “People.” Simply put, the phrase “People’s Legal Aid Assistant” can be understood as “Legal Assistant for the People.” In this context, PHR has the duty and function of serving as assistants for the people when they face legal problems—particularly those related to their rights over natural resources.
Beyond the meaning of legal assistants for the people’s problems, PHR can also be understood as “Assistants for People’s Law.” Therefore, it is necessary to further formulate the meaning and existence of People’s Law.
2. The Meaning of People’s Law
In formulating the existence and meaning of People’s Law, PHRs have conducted a series of meetings from 2010 to 2014.
These meetings succeeded in uncovering the ways in which people practice law, particularly in relation to the management of natural resources within their territories, and the relationships that occur between individuals, between individuals and communities, between communities, between individuals and natural resources, between communities and natural resources, and other relationships among these entities.
The findings of the PHRs were then articulated by four PHRs engaged in academia in the book People’s Law: A Review of Concepts, Theory, and Philosophy.
Simply put, People’s Law is understood as the laws practiced by ordinary people. People’s Law originates from and grows within the people themselves. In a more abstract sense, People’s Law is also a symbolization and representation of collective beliefs or values. People’s Law reflects moral views on how power should be managed so as to bring about the common good. In other words, People’s Law is law aimed at collective welfare (the common good).
3. Defending People’s Law
Although People’s Law is born, lives, operates, and is supported by the community, in reality it often undergoes various processes of weakening. People’s Law is regarded as uncertain and as hindering modernization. As such, it is often seen as an obstacle to progress and development, or as a disruption to interests that are not aligned with the people’s interests. This perception is accompanied by the appropriation or seizure of people’s natural resources, the displacement of people from their sovereign territories, the destruction of local socio-political structures, and the erasure of communities’ historical processes. Such conditions weaken and destroy People’s Law, which in turn means the destruction of the people themselves. It is under these circumstances that being a legal assistant for the people and an assistant for People’s Law become two inseparable sides of a PHR.
4. Arenas of PHR Struggle
The arenas of PHR struggle are:
- Indigenous and local communities as rights holders who are facing injustice, unequal structures, and oppression.
- Indigenous and local communities that are in the process of reclaiming the management of natural resources.
- Places where structural injustice occurs, particularly those caused by unjust laws.
5. Working Mechanisms
The general working mechanisms of PHR are:
- Uncovering false consciousness and dismantling dominant structures embedded in or imposed upon society.
- Reconstructing personal and community experiences of oppression as tools for building critical awareness and fostering change.
6. Supporting Actors for People’s Legal Aid Assistants
In carrying out their roles and functions as actors in the legal reform movement, the work of PHR must receive support. The primary and foremost support is expected to come from the communities where the PHR lives, works, and operates. Further support is expected from individuals or institutions that share the same vision in legal reform and in defending the people and People’s Law. The choices of pathways and steps for legal reform and defense must be discussed and agreed upon by these actors, and carried out inclusively and participatorily. Thus, the process of obtaining or defending rights for the people is genuinely owned by the people themselves.
7. Requirements to Become a PHR
In performing the roles and functions of a PHR, anyone wishing to become one must work within or alongside communities, and/or work outside the community while engaging in legal reform efforts. They must also have the ability to read social and legal situations using various analytical tools, human rights values, ecological sustainability, and be committed to pursuing legal reform. They should also possess practical skills that can be used to return law to the people.
To ensure these abilities are internalized within each PHR, an internalization process is required. This process can take place through structured education or through other forms of internalization processes developed within communities.