Assembly may drop draft on human rights charter

JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly came closer yesterday to reaching a decision to reject motions for human rights protection sponsored by minority factions.

All of the body's five factions agreed yesterday to jointly draw up fundamental principles of human rights protection, and incorporate them in the draft 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines, according to Wiranto, chairman of the Assembly's ad hoc committee in charge of affairs outside of state policy.

"We haven't reached any agreement on whether or not to adopt human rights protection as a separate decree because we have to work together with the committee in charge of the State Policy Guidelines," Wiranto said.

The State Policy Guidelines is being deliberated by another committee led by R. Hartono.

Wiranto said a special team led by his deputy chairman Akbar Tandjung would give the draft a finishing touch before offering it to the Hartono-led committee.

The United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) have demanded that the Assembly establish a human rights charter which could serve as a legal basis for a review of laws which are prone to rights abuses.

Dominant faction Golkar and its traditional allies, the Armed Forces and regional representatives, opposed the minority factions' motion. The three factions insisted on incorporating human rights protection in the legal development section of the State Policy Guidelines.

Debate on the necessity of a human rights charter has loomed outside the Assembly. The National Commission on Human Rights and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation are persistent supporters of a separate and more powerful decree on human rights.

Wiranto said yesterday that all the five factions in the Assembly shared a great concern for the improvement of human rights protection and promotion.

"Each of us has taken the right stance on human rights protection and how to enhance its implementation in society," Wiranto said.

He failed to decide on a date for a meeting with representatives of the ad hoc committee in charge of policy guidelines, but said he could arrange the joint deliberation at any time.

The committee in charge of non-state policy guidelines will move on with deliberation of the last motion on sociopolitical organizations proposed by PPP and PDI, starting today.

The committee deliberating policy guidelines resumed the debate on nondenominational faiths. PPP insisted on excluding nondenominational faiths from religious affairs.

A PPP representative, Muhammad Buang, predicted, however, that a compromise would be reached after the committee recognized yesterday that it was religion, not nondenominational faiths, that played a key role in efforts to enhance harmony within the community. (amd)