Ratification without Harmonisation: Fragmented Domestication of the 1990 Migrant Workers Convention in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26905/idjch.v17i2.17168Keywords:
Fragmentation of Norms, Harmonisation, ICRMW, RatificationAbstract
donesia's ratification of the 1990 ICRMW through Law No. 6 of 2012 obliges it to align domestic law with the Convention's broader, rights-based standards. Yet Law No. 18 of 2017 on migrant worker protection addresses only part of this obligation, focusing almost exclusively on Indonesian citizens working abroad. Using normative legal research with statutory and conceptual approaches, this article maps how far the Convention's remaining obligations covering foreign migrant workers in Indonesia, undocumented migrants, migrant families, and due process in detention and deportation, are accommodated across Indonesia's sectoral laws on immigration, labour, human rights, child protection, citizenship, social security, and trafficking. Applying a three-tier criterion (harmonised, partially accommodated, not accommodated), it finds these obligations dispersed across sectoral laws but not coherently integrated. This fragmentation produces four structural loopholes: an incomplete framework for foreign migrant workers, a rights vacuum for undocumented migrants, an underdeveloped family-protection regime, and administratively ather than rights-based due process in detention and deportation. With the 2026 Domestic Worker Protection Law now enacted, the article argues that closing these loopholes through a systematic harmonisation audit is a timely legislative priority, since ratification without harmonisation risks reducing the Convention to diplomatic formality rather than enforceable domestic rights.
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