Affirmative action

Affirmative action in Indonesia is a crucial instrument for ensuring women’s political representation, grounded in the constitutional guarantees of the 1945 Constitution. Data mapping by the WPPL Observatory identifies 56 policies spanning national legal frameworks to internal institutional regulations.

Political parties are the primary focus of reform, given their role as gatekeepers of political recruitment, followed by legislative institutions and electoral management bodies (KPU/Bawaslu). Although a substantial regulatory and institutional framework is already in place, the key challenge has now shifted toward consistent implementation—ensuring that women’s representation goes beyond merely fulfilling formal quotas and leads to meaningful and substantive political participation.