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In this chapter, I analyse activism relating to survivors of the so-called comfort women system, enforced military prostitution, during World War Two. The term ‘comfort women’ is highly problematic and considered offensive by many survivors, yet it continues to be the most commonly used term to describe survivors. The most well-known example of national-based activism from affected countries is the activism of the Korean Council. The second most active national group is probably ASCENT from the Philippines (Medoza, 2003). In recognition, however, of the transnational nature of activism on this issue, scholars have studied cooperation between Japanese and Korean activists and between Japanese and Chinese activists, and the role of the Korean diaspora in activism in the United States and Australia. In these studies, the authors have variously reflected on the bases of these transnational partnerships and the different positions of activists within them in relation to their national affiliations and new potential alliances that transcend the nation.

The 2019 documentary film They Call Me Babu utilises historical film footage including the home movies of one Dutch family with a voiceover in Bahasa Indonesia to narrate the fictionalised experiences of a former female domestic worker in the colony of the Netherlands East Indies in the closing decades of Dutch colonial rule from 1939 to 1949. By centring the experiences of ‘babu’, women who worked as nannies and nursemaids for families holding European status, and giving the main character of the film agency, the Dutch-Indonesian director Sarah Beerends endeavours to make these women visible and to narrate their viewpoints. In this paper we argue, however, that the director’s aspiration to centre the women’s stories is haunted by the spectres of the colonial matrix of power. This leads to the unintended replication of nostalgic images of, and tropes about, the colony that has characterised earlier Dutch memory work. The film does not offer a critical engagement with colonial violence and the colonial structures of power are instead positioned as contributing to the nanny’s gendered emancipation. Furthermore, we reflect on why, in the context of recent vociferous debates about colonial violence, a film which serves to soften images of Dutch colonialism, was generally well received.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of psychometric evidence about pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments. Evidence on cost effectiveness, involving the measurement of HRQoL, is used in many countries to make decisions about pharmaceuticals, technologies, and health services for children. Additionally, valid instruments are required to facilitate accurate outcome measurement and clinical decision making. A pediatric multi instrument comparison (P-MIC) study is planned to compare the psychometric performance and measurement characteristics of pediatric HRQoL instruments. METHODS: The planned P-MIC study will collect data on approximately 6100 Australian children and adolescents aged 2-18 years via The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and online survey panels. Participants will complete an initial survey, involving the concurrent collection of a range of pediatric HRQoL instruments, followed by a shorter survey 2-8 weeks later, involving the collection of a subset of instruments from the initial survey. Children aged ≥7 years will be asked to self-report HRQoL. Psychometric performance will be assessed at the instrument, domain, and item level. CONCLUSIONS: This paper describes the methodology of the planned P-MIC study, including benefits, limitations, and likely challenges. Evidence from this study will guide the choice of HRQoL measures used in clinical trials, economic evaluation, and other applications.

This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to chart how various forms of violence - domestic, military, legal and political - are not separate instances of violence, but rather embedded in structural inequalities brought about by ...

Two decades have passed since the May 1998 ‘Tragedy’. This event refers to the violence that swept across Indonesia, and particularly the capital Jakarta, in the lead-up to the fall of the authoritarian Suharto regime (1966–98). The violence included assaults on Chinese Indonesians, their businesses and property. Many women became victims of mass rapes and sexual assaults. As a consequence of the violence, a considerable number of Chinese Indonesians fled the country and resettled across the globe (Nonini 2006). ...

Between 1965 and 1968 the Indonesian army together with civilian vigilantes perpetrated a brutal attack on members of the Indonesian Communist Party and members of affiliated or closely aligned organisations including those for youth, farmers, artists and women. Approximately 500,000 people were murdered and up to a million imprisoned without trial. Schaefer and Wardaya (2013) recently concluded based on a survey of international government and press responses to the 1965 violence that ‘the world’ was largely complacent, if not jubilant, about the rise of the Suharto led military regime and thus silent about the violence against the Indonesian left. This is certainly true of almost all foreign governments. What this elite level of analysis misses, however, is the small scale transnational ‘communities of resistance’ (Mohanty, 2003) to the violence. This paper examines two cases of such resistance and connects them to earlier transnational anti- imperial and anti-fascist activism whereby Indonesians on the political left formed strong bonds to a broader global communities of activists. The first example I consider are protests originating from members of the Afro Asia People’s Solidarity Organisation, which included some Indonesian leftists trapped in exile after the onset of the 1965 violence. The second example I consider is protests launched by the largest post war women’s organization, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF). Here in particular I examine the role of Dutch socialist women who had strong connections to imprisoned Indonesian women through the WIDF. The paper asks how in each case activists tried to raise the alarm over the violent mass repression in Indonesia and the obstacles they encountered in generating sympathy at the height of the Cold War. It also considers why these cases of resistance have been forgotten.

What do Indonesia’s democratisation efforts look like when examined from the lens of human rights? Using the 1965 violence as a case study this article analyses human rights and justice reform after the end of the Suharto regime in 1998. We argue that despite the initial push to adopt international human rights principles and transitional justice mechanisms in Indonesian law, human rights reforms have stagnated. Explanations for this include the weakness of the human rights movement preceding 1998 and efforts by parties implicated in past violence to block justice initiatives.

Survivors and their families have remembered the events of 1965 and the related suffering of persons targeted in the violence in complex ways. In the absence of state recognition of the suffering of victims of 1965, survivors and families have had to pass on their memories in personal ways making their own meanings of these sites of terror within families and communities of former political prisoners. This chapter considers this process in terms of memories of imprisonment on the remote eastern Indonesian island of Buru.

In 2008 and 2009, a Dutch photographer, Jan Banning, and an anthropologist, Hilde Janssen, traveled around Indonesia to document, with photographs and testimonies, survivors of militarized sexual abuse by the Japanese military during the three-year occupation (1942–1945) of the former Dutch colony, the Netherlands East Indies. We argue that the resultant photographic project can best be understood within the framework of the “politics of pity” and the associated genres of representation. The project creators anticipated a cosmopolitan audience that might be moved to action to support the survivors. Yet, as the project was exhibited in different sites, the women's memories were interpreted through local knowledge systems and mnemonic practices. We analyze the reception of these photographs in diverse local contexts.

In transitions from authoritarian to democratic societies, efforts to deal with human rights claims relating to past cases of state violence and associated justice measures are generally at the forefront of societal and governmental agendas. Yet in the case of the post Soeharto Indonesia, demands for historical justice for the 1965 killings and imprisonments continue to meet strong resistance. Using recent examples of Indonesian activism relating to this case, I examine the connection between historical justice for this case and Indonesian democratization more broadly. Using the fiftieth anniversary of the violence as a point of reflection, I analyze the increasing emphasis in activism on demanding an end to impunity for past human rights crimes and the increasingly defiant positions of government, military, and religious officials toward this case.

Using a biographical approach, this chapter analyses why Carmel Budiardjo, a British-born woman of Jewish background, became a transnational activist. It examines her life during the Second World War and its aftermath and the transnational camaraderie she developed through her participation in the International Union of Students. The chapter also examines how her critical engagement with politics following her move to Indonesia, and her subsequent imprisonment because of her alleged ties with the Indonesian Communist Party, shaped her activism upon release and return to Britain to free Indonesian political prisoners.

This chapter discusses the Christian churches’ responses to the 1965–1966 anti-Communist repression in East Java and the conversion of leftist political detainees to Christian religions. Despite tensions in the relationship between the Left and Christian organizations before the repression, the decision to convert by such detainees prompted considerable commentary within church circles in the mid to late 1960s. Drawing on interviews with former detainees, religious cleric and laypersons, Hearman explores the meanings and value that former detainees ascribed to Christian worship, and the relationships they built with clerics over the course of detention and after their release. In so doing, it argues that religious conversion was not solely motivated by the desire to comply with the government requirement to possess a religion.

This randomized, open-label, active-controlled study investigated the safety and efficacy of three doses of Rolontis (eflapegrastim), a novel, long-acting myeloid growth factor, versus pegfilgrastim in breast cancer patients being treated with docetaxel and cyclophosphamide (TC). The primary efficacy endpoint was duration of severe neutropenia (DSN) during the first cycle of treatment. Patients who were candidates for adjuvant/neoadjuvant TC chemotherapy were eligible for participation. TC was administered on Day 1, followed by 45, 135, or 270 µg/kg Rolontis or 6 mg pegfilgrastim on Day 2. Complete blood counts were monitored daily when the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) fell to < 1.5 × 10 9 /L. Up to four cycles of TC were investigated. The difference in DSN (time from ANC < 0.5 × 10 9 /L to ANC recovery =2.0 × 10 9 /L) between the Rolontis and pegfilgrastim groups was -0.28 days (confidence interval [CI]: -0.56, -0.06) at 270 µg/kg, 0.14 days (CI: -0.28, 0.64) at 135 µg/kg, and 0.72 days (CI: 0.19, 1.27) at 45 µg/kg. Noninferiority to pegfilgrastim was demonstrated at 135 µg/kg (P = 0.002) and 270 µg/kg (P < .001), with superiority demonstrated at 270 µg/kg (0.03 days; P = 0.023). The most common treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were bone pain, myalgia, arthralgia, back pain, and elevated white blood cell counts, with similar incidences across groups. All doses of Rolontis were well tolerated, and no new or significant treatment-related toxicities were observed. In Cycle 1, Rolontis demonstrated noninferiority at the 135 µg/kg dose and statistical superiority in DSN at the 270 µg/kg dose when compared to pegfilgrastim.