Pretrial as a Mechanism for Guaranteing Human Rights Protection in the Indonesian Criminal Justice System

Pretrial proceedings, as a legal mechanism within the Indonesian criminal justice system, play a strategic role in ensuring the protection of human rights for suspects, particularly during the initial stages of investigation. This function was strengthened by Constitutional Court Decision No. 21/PUU-XII/2014, which expanded the scope of pretrial proceedings to include testing of suspect determination, searches, and seizures. However, the effectiveness of this institution remains hampered by various obstacles, such as a formalistic approach by judges, limited time for examinations, low public legal literacy, and a lack of assistance for vulnerable groups. This study uses a normative approach to evaluate the effectiveness of pretrial proceedings as a human rights instrument and examines the urgency of procedural law reform to ensure the substantive and inclusive functioning of pretrial proceedings. The findings indicate that without structural and institutional reforms, as well as synergy between the judiciary, legislature, executive branch, and civil society, pretrial proceedings will remain merely a formal procedure that fails to fulfill its constitutional role. Therefore, strengthening the function of pretrial proceedings must be a priority in criminal law reform in Indonesia.