Indonesia ratifies antibias convention

Indonesia ratifies antibias convention

JAKARTA (JP): After 34 years of negligence, Indonesia ratified
on Tuesday the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination.

In a plenary session here, the House of Representatives
unanimously endorsed the bill on the ratification of the
convention for President B.J. Habibie to sign into a new law.

The ratification requires the government to, among other
things, scrap all its racial discriminatory policies, which
mostly target Indonesian-Chinese rather than descents of other
migrant groups.

To follow up on its implementation, Minister of Justice Muladi
said a team would soon be assigned to evaluate all laws that
might be affected by the ratification.

The team will comprise representatives of the justice
ministry, foreign affairs ministry, Attorney General's Office,
National Police, National Commission on Human Rights, NGOs and
experts from universities, according to Muladi.

Laws to be evaluated by the team are the criminal laws, civil
laws and administrative laws.

Muladi said all existing laws that went against the ratified
convention would be abolished and new ones would be made
accordingly.

"(Thus) the law (on the convention ratification) needs to be
spelled out through several other laws," he said in his statement
welcoming the ratification.

"So, it's not an exaggeration to say that here we state that
the government is ready and remains committed to accountably
enforce the (new) law," he added.

In his statement, Muladi highlighted how the House had
critically made a "reservation" -- as allowed by Article 20 of
the convention -- in its ratification of Article 22.

The latter article regulates settlement of disputes on the
convention's interpretation and implementation through the
International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Muladi said the stance was taken simply because Indonesia has
not yet recognized ICJ's "compulsory jurisdiction".

Also in his statement, Muladi said that besides being binding
to the government, the ratification also would bind all members
of the public to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

"It (the new law) upholds our positive law which, among other
things, is accentuated in the Criminal Code's Article 156, 156a,"
he said.

The articles threaten anyone publicly spreading "enmity,
hatred, derogatory remarks" against any Indonesian ethnic group
with five years imprisonment.

All four factions of the House -- the United Development
Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party, Golkar and the Armed
Forces -- shared a common view on the criminal nature of all
forms of racial discrimination in the country.

Chinese-Indonesians have repeatedly complained about rampant
discriminatory practices that systematically treat them as
second-class citizens.

Their identity cards (KTP) bear special codes, and careers in
the military and bureaucracy are virtually closed to them.

The House factions were all united in hoping that the
ratification would lay the foundation for promotion of equality
for all. (aan)