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)