Alatas, Latief hail rights commission

Alatas, Latief hail rights commission

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief say they rely on the support of
National Commission on Human Rights in their respective cabinet
jobs.

In further testimony to the commission's prominence, the two
ministers attended the third anniversary celebration of Komnas
HAM, the Indonesian acronym for the commission, at its small
office in Menteng.

Alatas said the commission has contributed to Indonesia's
diplomatic efforts at a crucial time when the country has come
under criticism on human rights issues.

"In some cases, the national commission lent its helping hand
when we wanted to approach the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights. This kind of cooperation is useful," he said.

Alatas also credited the commission with increasing public
awareness of human rights. "In a relatively short time, the
commission has proven to be an institution which manages to carry
out its mission as expected," Alatas said.

"It's an impressive performance learning that the commission
is only three years old," he added.

Although labor cases rank high among reports of rights
violations received by the commission, the minister of manpower
joined in the toast to the human rights commission.

Thanks to the commission's help, Latief said he could identify
labor disputes more quickly.

"There has been a well-knit partnership between us, in a sense
that we always pay full attention to recommendations brought
forward by the commission," he said.

The Ministry of Manpower and the human rights commission have
set up a hotline for dealing with labor disputes, he said.

Since January, the commission has dealt with 147 labor
conflicts.

Land disputes are the primary grievance, with 301 cases having
been brought to the attention of the commission, followed by
allegations of wrongdoing by government officials, with 186
cases.

Alatas said Indonesia will soon ratify a number of
international covenants on human rights. "The small number of
covenants we have accepted is a legacy from the past. But we want
to make it up," he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will now endorse Indonesia's
ratification of the two most important human rights documents,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Alatas said.

Alatas explained why Indonesia has so far been reluctant to
ratify these pillars of human rights protection. "There are many
problems toward adopting those conventions. Many countries,
including the United States, have not ratified the covenant on
civil and political rights."

The covenant on civil and political rights obliges its
signatory nations to let the UN Human Rights Commission intervene
their internal human right disputes.

Indonesia has ratified three of 25 international conventions
on human rights. Those are conventions on the right of the child,
on the elimination of all forms of discriminations against women
and on the political rights of women. (amd/imn)