Pregnant, disabled and LGBT candidates being banned by Indonesian ministries

Harsh discrimination is on the rise within Indonesia’s Civil Service finds its Ombudsman.
By: | November 26, 2019

Several Indonesian ministries are banning pregnant, disabled and LGBT candidates, according to a damning report from the country’s Ombudsman

The report is timely given Indonesia is soon to take applications from millions of candidates who are applying for about 200,000 civil service jobs nationwide.

In recent years, Indonesia has seen a jump in discrimination against gay and transgender people while sexism in the workplace is also prevalent.

Ombudsman Indonesia commissioner Ninik Rahayu said an investigation found that the defence and trade ministries were among those departments discriminating against candidates in job ads.

“Banning people from applying for a job simply because they are transgender is not acceptable and is a violation of human rights,” she said.

The Ombudsman has called on the ministries to revoke their hiring policies, but the response has been underwhelming so far.

Experts say if Indonesia wants to recruit top talent to its civil service, it will need to shake off such claims of discrimination and adopt more open-minded recruitment policies.