Human rights guidelines to be published by government
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad said on Friday his office will issue 17 guidebooks on human rights which can be used as guidelines for law enforcement institutions and module books for students.
"This is part of the national campaign to disseminate and educate people to raise their awareness on human rights," he told The Jakarta Post at the sidelines of a seminar on revising the National Action Plan for Human Rights held here.
The manuscripts will be distributed to the military, police, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, also to journalists and university students, he added.
Hasballah said the module of human rights for junior high and high school students will be integrated into the curriculum or be part of students' extra-curricular activities.
"We don't want to load students with another curriculum. However, the module will encourage them to understand and to practice human rights," he said.
A national workshop on human rights for journalists will be held next month in 10 major cities, including Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Medan in North Sumatra.
Similar workshops are also planned by human rights study centers in 10 state-run universities which will educate academicians, law enforcement officials, legislators, state officials and local non-government organizations.
The five-year national action plan, running from 1998 to 2003, is aimed at establishing a better understanding and practice of human rights in the country.
The action plan has specific objectives: ratifying international conventions and covenants on human rights, disseminating information, upholding human rights as the country's priority, and establishing regulations as a follow-up to international conventions.
Hasballah explained that his office took the initiative to revise the action plan, primarily on its priority and to strengthen the commitment of the national committee.
"We found it necessary to expedite the ratification and the making of regulations on the most fundamental rights of the people on economic, social and culture realms. Initially, we only focused on the people's civil and political rights. But, the other rights should not be ignored for they really touch people's daily lives," he told the Post.
Software
Earlier during an NGO conference in Bogor, West Java, Hasballah also noted that Indonesia still lacks substantial software needed to minimize human rights violations.
"We do not have proper and updated laws to deal with rights violations, we don't have laws to protect witnesses and a good institutional system," he said during Wednesday's conference.
"We are in the process of transition towards the transformation of human rights issues," he added.
He cited South Korea as a country which had managed to implement human rights. "Two of its former presidents had been jailed for (corruption and rights violations)."
"Those (the successful trial of the two leaders) were made possible by four supporting factors. First the reigning president is not busy with his own problems, its armed forces are solid, the cooperation among political parties is also solid, and the press, students and the public are united in South Korea," he explained.
Implementation of human rights reflects the level of democracy of a country, he said. "The more democratic a country is, the less human right violations the country will have."
According to Hasballah, not many Indonesians are aware of human rights. "Many people speak about human rights yet they don't quite understand what they are. This circumstance has apparently led to conflicts and constraints among the people to implement human rights here."
The four-day conference, opened by Minister for Maritime Exploration and Fishery Sarwono Kusumaatmadja on Tuesday, involved at 123 organizations. The Indonesian NGOs Partnership Initiative and the USAID organized the conference. (21/sur/bby)