Govt seeks to boost rights body's powers
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)