Carmel Budiardjo (née Brickman; 18 June 1925 – 10 July 2021) was an English

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

, lecturer, and author. She was the founder of the non-governmental organisation Tapol. Budiardjo was known for campaigning for the awareness of war crimes and human rights abuses in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. For her activism, she was awarded the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob vo ...

in 1995.

Early life

She came from a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family in London, whose anti-fascist beliefs influenced her left-wing politics. She received a bachelor's degree in Economics in 1946 from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, where she became active in the National Union of Students. While working in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

for the

International Union of Students The International Union of Students (IUS) was a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations. The IUS was the umbrella organization for 155 such students' organizations across 112 countries and Territory (administrative ...

, she met Suwondo 'Bud' Budiardjo, an Indonesian government official whom she married in 1950. The couple moved to Indonesia in 1951, and she became an Indonesian citizen in 1954.

Early career

Budiardjo worked first as a translator for

Antara Antara may refer to: * Antara (music), a verse in Hindustani classical music * Antara (musical instrument), or siku, a traditional Andean panpipe * Antara (news agency), an Indonesian news agency * Antara (Peru), a mountain in Peru * Antara Pol ...

, the Indonesian

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

, then in economic research for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

, later studying at the

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia (UI; ) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the Dutch East Indies when UI was established) ...

's School of Economics and then lecturing at

Padjadjaran University Padjadjaran University (; ), abbreviated as UNPAD) is a public university located in Sumedang Regency and Bandung, which is the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It was established on 11 September 1957. UNPAD has gained the most appl ...

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

and Res Publica (now Trisakti) University in Jakarta.British woman narrates account of prison torture
, ''

The Jakarta Post ''The Jakarta Post'' is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Bina Media Tenggara and based in the nation's capital, Jakarta. ''The Jakarta Post'' started as a collaboration between four Indonesian media ...

'', 12 September 1999

Activism

After General

Suharto Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...

seized power in 1966, her husband was imprisoned, spending 12 years in jail. She was herself arrested, and later imprisoned in 1968 for three years and, after her release in 1971, was deported to England. Upon returning she founded Tapol to campaign for political prisoners in Indonesia, which took its name from the

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

of ''tahanan politik'', or

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

in Indonesian. The organisation expanded its activities, and was prominent in getting out information on military activity and human rights violations in

, invaded and occupied by Indonesia in 1975, as well as West Papua and

Aceh Aceh ( , ; , Jawi script, Jawoë: ; Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, Old Spelling: ''Atjeh'') is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capit ...

. The ''

Tapol Bulletin Tapol is a British non-governmental organisation monitoring human rights issues in Indonesia. ''Tapol'' is an abbreviation of the Indonesian words for political prisoners (''tahanan politik''). Based in London, Tapol continues to monitor and repo ...

'' was a major source of information about the human rights situation in Indonesia under the New Order. She was also the author of a number of books on human rights and politics in Indonesia. The organisation remains active, with Budiardjo still playing a very important part in its activities until her death. In 1995, Budiardjo was awarded the

for her work, being nominated by the International Federation for East Timor.

Death

Budiardjo died on 10 July 2021 in London at age 96. On 6 August 2021 Budiardjo was featured in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

obituary programme '' Last Word''.

Works

* Budiardjo, Carmel and Liem Soei Liong. ''The War Against East Timor''. London: Zed Books, 1984. . * Budiardjo, Carmel. ''Surviving Indonesia's Gulag: A Western Woman Tells Her Story''. London: Cassell, 1996. .

References

External links

Tapol Homepage

"tapol Fights On"
��1982 Article on Carmel {{DEFAULTSORT:Budiardjo, Carmel 1925 births 2021 deaths English Jews Indonesian Jews British human rights activists British women human rights activists Alumni of the University of London English people imprisoned abroad Activists from London Academics from London Foreign nationals imprisoned in Indonesia English emigrants to Indonesia Naturalised citizens of Indonesia