Aceh, officially the Province of Aceh, is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west, Strait of Malacca to the northeast, as well bordering the province of North Sumatra to the east, and shares maritime borders with Malaysia and Thailand to the east, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India to the north. Granted a special autonomous status, Aceh is a religiously conservative territory and the only Indonesian province practicing Sharia law officially. There are ten indigenous ethnic groups in this region, the largest being the Acehnese people, accounting for approximately 70% of the region's population of about 5.5 million people in mid-2023. Its area is comparable to Croatia or Togo.
Provinces are the first-level administrative divisions of Indonesia. It is formerly called the first-level provincial region before the Reform era. Provinces have a local government, consisting of a governor and a regional legislative body. The governor and members of local representative bodies are elected by popular vote for five-year terms, but governors can only serve for two terms. Provincial governments have the authority to regulate and manage their own government affairs, subject to the limits of the central government. The average land area of all 38 provinces in Indonesia is about 50,120.23 km2 (19,351.53 sq mi), and an average population of about 7,345,233 people.
Indonesia is divided into provinces. Provinces are made up of regencies and cities (kota). Provinces, regencies, and cities have their own local governments and parliamentary bodies.
In Indonesia, village or subdistrict is the fourth-level subdivision and the smallest administrative division of Indonesia below a district, regency/city, and province. Similar administrative divisions outside of Indonesia include barangays in the Philippines, Muban in Thailand, civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, communes in France and Vietnam, dehestan in Iran, hromada in Ukraine, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes in England and communities in Wales. There are a number of names and types for villages in Indonesia, with desa being the most frequently used for regencies, and kelurahan for cities or for those communities within regencies which have town characteristics. According to the 2019 report by the Ministry of Home Affairs, there are 8,488 urban villages and 74,953 rural villages in Indonesia. North Aceh Regency contained the highest number of rural villages (852) amongst all of the regencies of Indonesia, followed by Pidie Regency with 730 rural villages and Bireuen Regency with 609 rural villages. Prabumulih, with only 12 rural villages, contained the fewest. Counted together, the sixteen regencies of Indonesia containing the most rural villages—namely, North Aceh (852), Pidie (730), Bireuen (609), Aceh Besar (604), Tolikara (541), East Aceh (513), Yahukimo (510), Purworejo (469), Lamongan (462), South Nias (459), Kebumen (449), Garut (421), Bojonegoro (419), Bogor (416), Cirebon (412), and Pati (401)—contain one-third of all the rural villages in Indonesia. Five of these are located in Aceh, two in Highland Papua, three in Central Java, two in East Java, three in West Java, and one in North Sumatra. An average number of rural villages in the regencies and 15 cities of Indonesia is 172 villages. A village is the lowest administrative division in Indonesia, and it is the lowest of the four levels. The average land area of villages in Indonesia is about 25.41 km2 (9.81 sq mi), while its average population is about 3,723 people.
An Indonesian passport is a travel document issued by the Government of Indonesia to Indonesian citizens residing in Indonesia or overseas. The main governing body with regards to the issuance of such passport(s), possession(s), withdrawal and related matters is the Directorate General of Immigration under the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Indonesia does not recognize multiple citizenship for its citizens and such citizens will automatically lose their Indonesian citizenship if another citizenship is acquired voluntarily. Special exceptions allow newly born citizens to hold dual nationalities until his/her eighteenth birthday after which a choice of either nationalities should be decided. The latest Indonesian passport has different national birds and sceneries on each page.
Law of Indonesia is based on a civil law system, intermixed with local customary law and Dutch law. Before the Dutch presence and colonization began in the sixteenth century, indigenous kingdoms ruled the archipelago independently with their own custom laws, known as adat. Foreign influences from India, China and the Middle East have not only affected culture, but also the customary adat laws. The people of Aceh in Sumatra, for instance, observe their own sharia law, while ethnic groups like the Toraja in Sulawesi still follow their animistic customary law.
The Judiciary of Indonesia constitutionally consists of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, the Constitutional Court of Indonesia, and the lesser court system under the Supreme Court. These lesser courts are categorically subdivided into the public courts, religious courts, state administrative courts, and military courts.
The Municipal Police Unit, are municipal police units throughout Indonesia which are under the control of the local governments of each province, city, and regency (Kabupaten). Its purpose is to assist regional heads in enforcing regional regulations and administering public order and public security, the Satpol PP is formed in every province, city, and/or regency. It is under the auspices of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Bappeda Lhokseumawe is the Indonesian abbreviation of Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah Kota Lhokseumawe. It is a Regional Development Planning Board, namely regional technical institutions in the field of regional development research and planning led by the Head of the Agency under and responsible to the Mayor of Lhokseumawe City.
The Ministry of Law and Human Rights is an Indonesian ministry that administers laws and human rights. It is responsible to the president, and is led by the Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yasonna Laoly, since 27 October 2014. The first minister was Soepomo.
The Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Indonesia is the competent authority to advise the Government of Indonesia on matters of law. It serves as the central organization for the Indonesian Public Prosecution Service. The Attorney General's Office is seated in the national capital Jakarta.
The province of Aceh in Indonesia enforces some provisions of Islamic criminal law, the sole Indonesian province to do so. In Aceh, Islamic criminal law is called jinayat. The laws that implement it are called Qanun Jinayat or Hukum Jinayat, roughly meaning "Islamic criminal code". Although the largely-secular laws of Indonesia apply in Aceh, the provincial government passed additional regulations, some derived from Islamic criminal law, after Indonesia authorized the province to enact regional regulations and granted Aceh special autonomy to implement Islamic law. Offences under the provisions include alcohol consumption, production and distribution, gambling, adultery, rape, sexual harassment, certain intimacies outside marriage, and certain homosexual acts. Punishments include caning, fines, and imprisonment. There is no provision for stoning; an attempt to introduce it in 2009 was vetoed by Governor Irwandi Yusuf. In 2016 Aceh processed 324 first instance court cases under Islamic criminal law, and carried out at least 100 caning sentences.
In Indonesian law, the term "city" is generally defined as the second-level administrative subdivision of the Republic of Indonesia, an equivalent to regency. The difference between a city and a regency is that a city has non-agricultural economic activities and a dense urban population, while a regency comprises predominantly rural areas and is larger in area than a city. However, Indonesia historically had several classifications of cities.
Public broadcasting institutions in Indonesia currently consists of three separate entities: Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI), Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI), and local public broadcasting institutions. The classification is based on Act No. 32 of 2002 on Broadcasting and followed by Government Regulation No. 11 of 2005 on Broadcasting Provision of Public Broadcasting Institution.
Regional Development Banks are a type of bank in Indonesia that is established and owned by the local provincial government. Its purpose is to boost regional development and provide initial capital to the province that private banks would not risk giving, as well as giving basic financial services for the general provincial population. It was first established on 25 March 1960 and regulated under Law Number 13 of 1962 and Law Number 16 of 1999 Decree from the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the law, the shares of Regional Development Banks are divided into two; priority shares and regular shares. Priority shares ownership must be on the hand of provincial governments, while regular shares can be owned by second-level administrative governments under the respective provinces and individuals. The director of these banks are appointed directly by the governor of the respective provinces and hold the office for 4 years. Provincial governors also have the ability to remove directors from the office for several reasons such as incompetency and corruption, with recommendation from local provincial parliaments. If there is more than one director, the law also states that they are not allowed to be closely related and should not occupy other governmental positions unless recommended. As of 2021, there are 26 regional development banks according to the Financial Services Authority. Not all provinces currently have their own bank, especially newly established provinces such as North Kalimantan and the Bangka Belitung Islands, which both still share ownership of various bank companies with their respective parent provinces.
The People's Consultative Assembly, the bicameral legislature of Indonesia, passed a series of resolutions of the People's Consultative Assembly or TAP MPR throughout the 1960s, to the very last issued in 2003.
The Law on Law Formulation or officially titled Law No. 13/2022 in regards of Second Amendment of Law No. 12/2011 on Law Formulation is a law that enables formulation of omnibus law in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Criminal Code, commonly known in Indonesian as Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana, abbreviated as KUH Pidana or KUHP), are laws and regulations that form the basis of criminal law in Indonesia. By deviating as necessary from Presidential Regulation dated 10 October 1945 No. 2, it stipulated that the criminal law regulations that are in effect are the Dutch criminal law regulations that existed on 8 March 1942. Currently, the Republic of Indonesia has its own Criminal Code, that is due to take effect in 2026.
Non-structural institutions or non-structural agencies are special organizations in Indonesia distinct from traditional government ministries and non-ministerial government bodies. Formed through certain legislative and executive acts, non-structural institutions are formed to support the overall functions of the state and government, addressing specific needs/tasks that cannot be as efficiently handled by existing ministries and agencies. Funding for these organizations come from the national budget (APBN).
