Chairperson of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (2017-2020)

Ahmad Taufan Damanik  is the  Chairperson of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission.  Ahmad  Taufan  Damanik  has  been  working  in  the  advancement  of  Children’s  Rights since 1986 by establishing Yayasan KKSP (KKSP Foundation) which specialized itself in addressing  issues  of  children’s  rights,  alternative  education  for  children,  child  labor advocacy,  children  suffering  sexual  exploitation,  trafficking  and  others.  Together  with Anti-Slavery International, Terre des Hommes Germany, Vivere and other international organisations,  he  actively  campaigned  against  cases  of  children  who  work  on  fishing platforms which was considered as one of the worst form of child labour.  He and his teams successfully won the case through ILO Mechanism in 1998, which resulted in the banning  of  child  labour  on  fishing  platforms  by  the  Government  of  Indonesia.  For his efforts, Ahmad Taufan Damanik was nominated to receive the International Child Rights Award. His active involvement in child’s rights has brought him to his current position as the  Vice-Chair  of  the  ASEAN  Commission  on  the  Promotion  and  Protection  of  the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) as well as the Indonesia’s Representative for Children’s Rights to the ACWC since 2010. He is also an active member of IFM-SEI, an international organization for child’s education in Brussels, Belgium, Asia ACT (Asia Anti Child trafficking) and the International Coalition for the Elimination of Child Soldiers. He was the coordinator of Southeast Asia Working Group for CRC Monitoring (1999-2003) and  the  Presidium  of  the  National  Coalition  for  Non-Governmental  Organizations  for Monitoring Children’s Rights in Indonesia. In addition to his work in child’s rights, he is also a lecturer at the Department of Political Sciences, the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, North Sumatera  University,  Medan.  He  completed  his  Masters  of  Arts  in Political  Theory  from  University  of  Essex,  UK,  in  2004.