Indonesia has reservations on Annan's human rights proposal

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post/Geneva

Indonesia, which chairs the United Nations Commission on Human Rights this year, has some reservations about the proposal to abolish the agency and replace it with a smaller council as suggested by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Nevertheless, Indonesia used its position to persuade other commission members to begin discussion on the proposal, at least to find out where they stand.

"There are other ways besides abolishing the commission to make human rights one of the central themes for the United Nations," Ambassador Makarim Wibisono, who is chairing the commission, told The Jakarta Post.

Makarim met with Kofi Annan on Thursday shortly before the secretary-general delivered a speech at the commission's 61st session, during which he appealed to members to take up his proposal and come up with an early agreement.

The senior Indonesian diplomat said the commission would begin deliberation on the proposal on April 12 in Geneva, but he made no commitment as to whether or not the discussion could be completed as fast as Annan wished.

Annan in Geneva elaborated on his proposal, first broached in his report entitled Larger Freedom detailing bold reforms for the United Nations.

On human rights, the paper said the Commission on Human Rights, with 53 members, has simply grown too large and cumbersome to be effective in tackling human rights problems, citing as examples the failure of the world to adequately respond to the genocide in Rwanda last year and the tardy response to the trouble in Darfur, Sudan this year.

A council, with less members, would be able to respond faster and more effectively, so the argument goes.

But the idea behind this proposal is to make human rights one of the central themes for the world body, along with security and development.

Recognizing that the commission lacks credibility and effectiveness, Makarim said a better solution would be to assess the reasons behind this rather than to simply abolish it and replace it with a smaller council.

Makarim, who will chair the commission for the coming year, said he had already tried to fix one problem in the commission, and had actually made some inroads.

He was referring to the "naming and shaming" practice adopted by some of the commission members, which only served to force the opposite parties to become defensive, to solidify solidarity with others, and put up resistance.

In this year's session, which opened on March, 14, there have been less politics of this kind relative to last year, and thus the debate had been more productive under Makarim's chairmanship, according to delegates who regularly attend the meetings.

Other problems dodging the commission include the even-handed approach of the commission in selecting which human rights to deal with (with the bias going strongly against developing countries); the failure of countries to treat human rights as indivisible and focusing on civil and political rights while neglecting economic, social and cultural rights; and the methods that have become outdated.

Makarim also noted that the commission only receives two percent of the United Nations' budget, which is hardly sufficient to sustain an effective operation. Unless the budget is increased, a smaller council would be just as ineffective, he argued.

He said he had already discussed informally with many delegates Annan's proposal. "Many countries support the spirit of making human rights one of the central issues for the United Nations. But when it comes to the question of structure and organization, we have a divided house."