House ratifies covenants ahead of recess
House ratifies covenants ahead of recess
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The elimination of all forms of restrictions on freedom of
expression, threats to religious freedom, forced labor and
discrimination in the workplace are new tasks for the government
after the House of Representatives finally ratified on Friday two
long-awaited United Nations covenants.
The ratification of the UN 1969 Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights wrapped up the House's first one-year sitting
period. The lawmakers will now go into a three-week recess.
Chairman of House Commission I on defense and foreign affairs
Theo L. Sambuaga said ratifying the covenants would commit
Indonesia to protecting the rights of its citizens to an
international standard.
The covenants will also serve as an important main reference
for national laws that have been or will be passed in the future,
according to Theo, although some House members said that most of
the covenants' articles were already recognized by the 1945
Constitution and other laws.
The House also approved one major additional clause to Article
1 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights regarding the
right of self-determination.
"Self-determination does not apply to any parts of a united
state, and there's no parts of the covenant that will go against
the unitary state of Indonesia," Theo said.
It took the lawmakers less than three weeks to ratify the two
covenants, a process that also involved consultation with human
rights activists and experts in international law. A bill's
deliberation normally lasts more than a month.
Some observers believe that the ratification was simply aimed
to facilitate the request from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
following the Aug. 18 signing of a peace accord to end almost 30
years of separatist fighting in the province.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said the
ratification would mean the international community could hold
Indonesia accountable for the implementation of the two
covenants.
"We're now responsible to the international community for any
violations of the covenants. We're also obliged to write a
biennial report on our implementation of the covenants," he said.
Human rights activists, however, called the ratification half-
hearted.
Ifdhal Kasim, director of the Institute for Policy Research
and Advocacy (ELSAM), said the ratification had excluded two
optional protocols, which were as important as other clauses in
the covenant on civil and political rights.
The two excluded protocols were on the mechanism of victims of
human rights violations to individually claim for rights
restoration and the abolishment of capital punishment.
"The House was so worried about the self-determination clause,
that they didn't focus on these two protocols, which are more
relevant to our situation now," said Ifdhal.
The two international covenants were the latest of only 12
bills the lawmakers managed to endorse since they took office in
October last year. The House had set a target of passing 55
bills, in line with the National Legislation Program for 2005.