These problems in the areas of environment, working conditions, social injustice, and above all the land conflicts in Indonesia often go hand in hand with massive human rights violations. The National Human Rights Commission Komnas HAM reported about 5,000 violations of human rights in Indonesia in 2010, of which 30 percent were associated with the cultivation of palm oil. (Source: Brot für die Welt: (Bread for the World) The loss of reason. Human Rights Violations in the Oil-Palm Plantations in Indonesia. 2011.)

 

People are denied access to resources, and the right to freedom of speech. The right to bodily integrity as well as the right of ownership are violated. Moreover, cases have been known of sexual assault. (The Loss of Reason, p 8f.)

The rural population struggles against the actions of the oil palm company with protests and demonstrations, often supported by defenders of human rights. Through violent interventions by the security forces, acting in the interest of the government or the private sector, it comes again and again to injuries and deaths among the demonstrators. Activists that sometimes are arrested arbitrarily have little chance of a fair trial and are often sentenced to several months imprisonment.