Education
University of London.
University of London.
Born Carmel Brickman, she came from a Jewish 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, where she became active in the National Union of Students. While working in Prague for the International Union of Students, 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.
She worked first as a translator for Antara, the Indonesian news agency, then in economic research for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later studying at the University of Indonesia"s School of Economics and then lecturing at Padjadjaran University in Bandung and Resident Publica (now Trisakti) University in Jakarta. She herself was arrested, and later imprisoned in 1968 for three years, and was then deported to England on her release in 1971.
Upon returning she founded Tapol to campaign for political prisoners in Indonesia, which took its name from the transcript of tahanan politik, or "political prisoner" in Indonesian. The organisation expanded its activities, and was prominent in getting out information on military activity and human rights violations in East Timor, invaded and occupied by Indonesia in 1975, as well as West Papua and Aceh.
The Tapol Bulletin was a major source of information about the human rights situation in Indonesia under the New Order.
She is 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.
