CPICL Fellows Participated in ALSA Criminal Law Conference in Jakarta

CPICL Fellows participated in the 3rd Annual Conference of the Criminal Law Chapter of the Asian Law School Association (ALSA), held on 2 June 2026 in Jakarta, Indonesia. CPICL Director of Public Law, Associate Professor Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, attended the conference alongside UQ School of Law academics Professor Andreas Schloenhardt and Dr Rebecca Wallis, both of whom chaired conference sessions.

The conference was hosted by the University of Brawijaya’s Pusat Riset Sistem Peradilan Pidana Universitas Brawijaya (PERSADA UB). It brought together criminal law scholars from across the region to discuss contemporary developments in criminal law reform, criminal justice and comparative criminal law in Asia.

CPICL Research Scholar Darul Mahdi also presented work from his PhD research in a paper titled ‘Codifying Atrocity Crimes Without War Crimes: Explaining Indonesia’s New Criminal Code’. The presentation examined a structural accountability gap in Indonesian criminal law concerning war crimes. Darul analysed the legality of military conduct during counterinsurgency operations against GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, Free Aceh Movement) during the Aceh conflict.

His presentation argued that Indonesian military conduct in Aceh may be characterised as war crimes, while also demonstrating that accountability is systematically impeded by Indonesian law’s omission of a specific war crimes offence, unless the conduct rises the threshold for crimes against humanity or genocide.

Further details about the conference are available from PERSADA UB.