Tourism Industry set to Trample Indonesians’ Human Rights

The Indonesian government, along with its Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), will launch a $3 billion project on the island of Lombok in the coming months.  Such a project will expel the island’s locals from their properties, and will inhibit farmers and fishers from working consequently depriving them of some of their fundamental human rights. On one hand, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the tourism industry, which contributes significantly to Indonesia’s GDP. However, this project contradicts the country’s commitments to its Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights, and the government’s general obligations to its laborers. Governments cannot displace their own citizens, and depriving them of their fundamental human rights must be brought to international jurisdictions’ attention.