Govt seeks to boost rights body's powers

JAKARTA (JP): A government-sponsored draft law initiated to empower the National Commission on Human Rights was submitted to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

In a plenary session presided over by deputy speaker Hari Sabarno, Minister of Justice Muladi said the bill would extend to the organization, rights, authority and accountability of the commission.

"The commission will have the authority to resolve disputes on rights violations. Its verdicts will be legally binding and can only be appealed to the Supreme Court," Muladi told the House.

He added the powers of the committee would resemble an ombudsman body in Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands.

It is titled: "Bill on Human Rights and the National Commission on Human Rights".

Muladi is a former member of the commission, which was established in 1993 through Presidential Decree No. 50/1993.

The draft allows that if a party fails to comply with the verdict by a set deadline, its adversary could request that a local district court declare the verdict's execution with the pronouncement: "In the name of justice of Almighty God".

"The draft law also contains the spirit and substance of various international human rights-related conventions, be they those the country has or has not ratified," Muladi said.

It is meant to establish an "umbrella law" to which all human rights-related laws must refer, he added.

Muladi also said the bill covered the duties and responsibilities of the government and its apparatus in order to promote public and state apparatus' recognition and protection of human rights.

The rights body is widely respected for its high integrity despite the weakness of its legal authority.

Many of the commission's recommendations to resolve human rights disputes have been ignored by the conflicting parties, the government in particular.

One of its landmark recommendations came in 1996 following the forcible takeover of the headquarters of the then splintered Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) from the camp under Megawati Soekarnoputri by government-backed supporters of Soerjadi.

It held the government responsible for human rights violations in the bloody clash and also endorsed the reinstatement of Megawati as the party's chairwoman.

The government did not follow up its recommendations.

On Wednesday, Muladi assured there would be no repeat because of the bill's guarantee of stronger rights and authority of the commission.

"The law will even endow the commission with subpoena rights," he said shortly after the session.

In the following plenary session on Wednesday, Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris submitted three draft laws on the ratification of three international conventions on labor.

Submitted were ILO Convention No. 105 concerning abolition of forced labor, ILO Convention No. 111 on discrimination in respect to employment and occupation and ILO Convention No. 138 on minimum age for admission to employment.

"These bills have a link to both national and global issues related to the upholding and respect of human rights, on the protection of workers, especially child labor," Fahmi said.

Indonesia has ratified the ILO's four other core conventions. They are ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association and protection of the right to organize (though Presidential Decree No. 83/1998); ILO Convention No. 98 concerning the right to organize and bargain collectively (through Law No. 18/1956); ILO Convention No. 29 on forced labor (through Indische Staatblad No. 261/1933) and ILO Convention No. 100 concerning equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal time (through Law No. 80/1957). (aan)