A gentle voice on human rights<\/p>\n
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post\/Oslo<\/p>\n
He greets his guests from Indonesia at his office in flawless
\nBahasa Indonesia, as if it is the language he speaks every day in
\nOslo. He is a soft-spoken individual whose disposition seems at
\nodds with the complicated and harsh issues that he, and his
\ncenter, deal with: human rights violations.<\/p>\n
But then, Knut Asplund is no ordinary human rights campaigner
\nand the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, of which he is an
\nassociate, is not one of those run-of-the-mill NGOs that is
\nvocal, if not loud, in denouncing Indonesia's human rights
\nrecord.<\/p>\n
Pak Knut, as he is affectionately called by his Indonesian
\nfriends, prefers the softly-softly approach that is not
\nnecessarily less effective than the frontal and abrasive method
\npreferred by most other human rights organizations.<\/p>\n
Still, he politely avoided any comparison with the Western
\nhuman rights organizations that have been poking their noses into
\nIndonesia's rights records, and are thus better known to the
\nIndonesian public than his own center.<\/p>\n
\"They do their job,\" he says. \"We do our share.\"<\/p>\n
Here, from his office opposite the University of Oslo, Asplund
\nruns the Indonesian program with Christian Ranheim and Christina
\nKloster.<\/p>\n
Asplund and his team are not complete strangers to Indonesian
\nhuman rights or legal circles as visits to the country and
\ncontact with people who matter have been par for the course in
\ntheir work.<\/p>\n
Both articulate speakers of Bahasa Indonesia, the language
\nskills of Asplund and Kloster testify to their deep involvement
\nwith this country.<\/p>\n
The center's work in Indonesia has been substantial, but it
\nhas somehow escaped media publicity. Perhaps this is because it
\ndoes not deliver press statements or regular reports passing
\njudgment on Indonesia's human rights record.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian program is much more to do with building the
\ncapacity of Indonesian institutions to ensure better protection
\nand observation of human rights.<\/p>\n
One of its new activities, for example, is helping to
\nestablish a library for human rights study centers in Indonesia.
\nAsplund and his team are also helping to draft a textbook on
\nhuman rights to be used in teaching undergraduates at law schools
\nin the country.<\/p>\n
The center has organized human rights courses for law
\nprofessors, and arranged for selected Indonesians to undertake
\nmaster's degrees related to human rights issues at the University
\nof Oslo.<\/p>\n
Human rights 'superpower'<\/p>\n
The activities are not the sort of stuff that draws
\ncontroversy and thus media attention. Most journalists would
\nprobably find them too dull to be newsworthy.<\/p>\n
But they are important nevertheless in the realm of
\nIndonesia's human rights field, an area in which the nation, the
\ngovernment in particular, continues to fall short.<\/p>\n
For Norway, as it is with most other Scandinavian countries,
\nhuman rights has become a major foreign policy issue, at times
\neven the defining issue around which other aspects of bilateral
\nrelations are built.<\/p>\n
\"Norway is trying to find its place in international
\ndiplomacy, a niche,\" Asplund explains. \"We want to become a sort
\nof humanitarian superpower.\"<\/p>\n
And human rights is the obvious choice for a country
\nin which the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year. Norway's
\ncontribution to international peace includes the 1993 Oslo
\nAgreement between Israel and Palestine. Norway has also been
\ninvolved in the peace processes in Sri Lanka, the Southern
\nPhilippines and in Aceh in 2002.<\/p>\n
Asplund shrugs when asked whether he or his center has
\npowerful clout over the policy-making process of the Royal
\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n
But he admits that non-governmental organizations in
\nScandinavian countries have a lot of political clout.<\/p>\n
\"It's a Scandinavian model of government. There is a close
\nrelationship between civil society organizations and the
\ngovernment. Perhaps even too close, so that we have often been
\naccused of being completely co-opted,\" he says, noting that
\nNorwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store was formerly the
\nsecretary-general of the Norwegian Red Cross.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian program began in 2002 following the
\nestablishment of the Human Rights Dialog between the Indonesian
\nand Norwegian governments. The human rights center was brought
\ninto the picture to help facilitate and implement some of the
\nagreements that came out from the annual dialog.<\/p>\n
Asplund, an anthropologist by training, applied for the job to
\nlead the Indonesian program because of his connection with
\nIndonesia. He wrote his master's degree thesis in 1995 on the
\nrelation between Islam and traditional beliefs in the Riau
\narchipelago in 1995.<\/p>\n
Hailing from a small village, as he put it \"above the Arctic
\nCircle\", he returned to Indonesia in 1999 as a member of the
\nindependent observer for the East Timor ballot. He and Ranheim
\nwere among the last to leave East Timor before violence erupted.<\/p>\n
That unfortunate episode remains an unresolved issue as far as
\nthe United Nations is concerned, particularly in the absence of
\nanyone in the Indonesian Military being made accountable for the
\natrocities that took place in the wake of the UN-sponsored
\nballot.<\/p>\n
\"It's hard to disagree with the United Nations,\" Asplund says.<\/p>\n
But he acknowledges that there has been a change of attitude
\non the part of Indonesia in recent years.<\/p>\n
\"There is a genuine effort to solve human rights problems,\" he
\nadds.<\/p>\n
He underlines specifically the ratification of the UN Covenant
\non Civil and Political Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic,
\nSocial and Cultural Rights by the Indonesian government this year
\nas milestones for human rights in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"It's a statement of commitment,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"There's a pronounced will to improve, and you find this
\nacross the government. There is openness now, including in the
\nIndonesian Military.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-gentle-voice-on-human-rights-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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