The decision to adopt the UDHR was taken unanimously by both the Republic (led by Prof. Soepomo) and the Federal Consultative Assembly (chaired by Sultan Hamid II) at the First Inter-Indonesia Conference (Inter-Indonesische Conferentie) held in Jogjakarta from 19 to 23 July 1949, resulted in the Draft of the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (Rancangan Konstitusi Sementara Republik Indonesia Serikat) that was prepared for the Round Table Conference where Indonesia agreed to form the ‘Republic-Federation’ state under the Netherlands-Indonesian Union.

The Draft of the Provisional Constitution explicitly stated that ‘Konstitusi sementara mengambil over hak2 pokok jang dimuat dalam Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 Dec. 1948)…’ ‘take over fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948)…’.

Making direct reference to the UDHR, Indonesia was arguably the first State to give legal effect to the UDHR. The adoption of the UDHR was fundamental to the Indonesian concept of human rights. It remarked the acceptance of the concept of natural rights into the 1945 Constitution proclaimed three years before the adoption of the UDHR, proclaiming the Indonesian concept of human rights: the familial principle.

The 1949 Constitution was in force for less than a year until 17 August 1950 when Indonesia decided for the creation of the unitary state under the Provisional Constitution of 1950 which constituted a formal amendment to the Constitution of 1949. The fundamental rights and freedoms enunciated in the UDHR were retained under this Provisional Constitution of 1950 that effectuated from 18 August 1950 to 5 July 1959 but were then absent for almost forty years when Indonesia decided to return to the 1945 Constitution on 5 July 1959.

Following Indonesia’s reformation in 1998, the fundamental rights and freedoms enunciated in the UDHR were re-adopted, along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) that constitute as the ‘International Bill of Rights’ through the adoption of the Second Amendment to the 1945 Constitution on 18 August 1998 that remains in force to this day.

This adoption concludes that the present Indonesian constitution is formed upon two different concepts of human rights: the rights and freedoms retained under the familial principle embodied in the 1945 Constitution and the rights and freedoms under the concept of natural rights embodied in the International Bill of Rights.