Tarsisius Fendy Sesupi
Tarsisius Fendy Sesupi is an Indonesian indigenous and environmental human rights defender. As the Traditional Head of Lelayang Hamlet in West Kalimant, he has led his community in peacefully defending their right to ancestral land and territory amidst continued deforestation and destruction of local areas by large companies.
Since Indonesia’s transition to democracy, the role of human rights defenders has been of particular importance. The country’s record of its treatment of human rights defenders has been floundering, including ongoing surveillance and harassment, restrictions on the freedom of expression and freedom of religion, gender- specific violations against woman HRDs, judicial harassment including criminal defamation suits, stigmatisation, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment, torture, forced disappearances and killings. Impunity in cases of murders of HRDs and grave human rights violations continue to thrive.
