Indonesia has asked that other nations respect its legal processes as it prepares to carry out the death penalty for the first time this year.

Five death row prisoners, reportedly Indonesians and Nigerians, are scheduled for imminent execution by firing squad after President Joko Widodo denied their requests for clemency.

He said drug offenders threatened to ruin Indonesia's future, and the death sentence would be "important shock therapy" to others.

Among the other clemency cases before him are those of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, lead members of the Bali Nine smugglers.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say Mr Joko should commute the death sentences as soon as possible and abolish the death penalty.

Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir says Indonesia campaigns to save its own nationals from execution overseas, but sees the domestic arena differently.

"When we talk about death sentence there's the process of others, and domestically, there's our process," he told reporters.

"We respect their process abroad and so they should also respect ours."

Indonesia's Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly has said he feels the death penalty is a "dilemma" and while he respects the courts, he doesn't personally support it.

But his spokesman Ferdinand Siagian this week echoed the president's views.

"Drugs are hurting people from elementary school students to university professors," he told AAP.

"And so I agree that we must finish drug dealers or we're losing a generation.

"For now I don't see (any way for death row drug offenders to escape death penalty).

"If it's already in the process then the process will proceed."

Human Rights Watch Indonesia spokesman Andreas Harsono says the new president's hardline stance is a betrayal of his promises to better protect human rights.

What's more, the idea it was "shock therapy" was incorrect.

"There are many studies that show the death sentence is not going to deter the drug trade," he said.

"There's so much progress Indonesia had made with democracy ... but with so many missteps I don't think it's going to be very good for Indonesia's reputation as a rights respecting nation internationally."

INDONESIA AND THE DEATH PENALTY:
- There are 136 people currently on death row in Indonesia
- 64 have been convicted of drug trafficking, two for terrorism, and the rest for murder and robbery
- Indonesia ended a four-year unofficial moratorium on the use of the death penalty on March 15, 2013, when it executed by firing squad Adami Wilson, a 48-year-old Malawian national
- There are reports that after the five executions this year, another 20 will follow next year.