Human rights body beefs up legal status
Human rights body beefs up legal status
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights is
working to strengthen its status to be a more independent and
authoritative institution, its chairman said yesterday.
Marzuki Darusman said the commission was negotiating with the
government and the House of Representatives to make a law on the
institution and its authority in promoting the implementation of
human rights in the country.
"We hope we can complete negotiations by the end of this year
and then we will would work to design a draft law to be proposed
to the House to be endorsed," he told The Jakarta Post after
delivering a speech at a seminar on human rights sponsored by the
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) here.
Marzuki said a strong legal basis would give the rights body
the authority to investigate human rights violations on their own
initiative and follow up on the findings, instead of just making
recommendations.
"With the law, we will have the authority to carry out
investigations, including bringing forward witnesses to testify
without fear of being intimidated, abducted or tortured."
The rights body, which was established in 1993 based on a
presidential decree, has been permitted only to make
recommendations from results of its findings in the field. It has
no authority to carry out investigations on its own or to compel
authorities to follow up on their findings on human rights
violations.
Military culture
Marzuki also said the restrictive military culture that
pervades the bureaucracy was not conducive to the true protection
of human rights in the country.
"The past government issued too many restrictions and
limitations, instead of playing role as a facilitator, so that
many actions it took were against human rights," he said.
He acknowledged that former president Soeharto's regime had
ratified several United Nations conventions but it had a hollow
commitment to comply with them.
"The ratifications of the convention were symbolic actions,"
he said, citing the practices of intimidation and repression
which prevailed for many years.
Marzuki hailed President B.J. Habibie's recent decision to
launch a national human rights campaign, saying it should be
counted as an advancement in the effort to promote rights
protection.
ELSAM chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara urged the public
to be more active in pressing the government and the House to
ratify conventions and to fully comply with them.
He said the torture of land owners who refused to sell their
land to businesspeople, the recent abductions of student
activists and the use of repressive approaches in police and
military investigations were evidence of the urgent need for the
country to immediately ratify the UN conventions.
Up to now, of 25 UN conventions on human rights, only four
have been ratified by Indonesia. The country has yet to ratify
the prime convention, the International Bill of Human Rights, and
two main covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, he said. (rms)