NGOs want Komnas HAM to be more powerful
NGOs want Komnas HAM to be more powerful
Bambang Nurbianto and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
A coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) urged the
government on Tuesday to give more power to the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to ensure proper legal
processing of those suspected of human rights abuses.
The call was made after the UN Committee against Torture
expressed concern over the record of Indonesia's implementation
of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Treatment and
Punishment.
Concern was conveyed by the committee at a meeting with
Indonesian delegates last week in Geneva that several findings of
the rights body had not been made public, giving rise to
suspicion that certain persons were being protected.
A representative of the coalition, Munarman, told a media
conference on Tuesday that a stronger and more independent rights
body was needed to prevent the practice of impunity being given
to certain persons involved in human rights abuses.
Soni Setyana, another representative of the coalition, further
disclosed that Indonesia had been criticized for the many
untouchable figures from both the military and bureaucracy,
despite their being allegedly involved in human rights abuses.
"Komnas HAM needs more authority, including the right to
announce its findings before they are submitted to the attorney
general for further legal action," said Soni, who is an activist
of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBHI).
The coalition's media conference was in response to
Indonesia's first report to the committee on its implementation
of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel Treatment and
Punishment.
The government, which ratified the convention in 1998, should
have made a progress report on its implementation in the
following year.
Munarman, who represented Indonesian NGOs at the Geneva
meeting with several other activists, said the Indonesian
delegation, led by Indonesia's permanent representative to the
UN, did not disclose the government's effort to solve the cases.
The report only explained the normative legal system in
Indonesia without dealing with the actual implementation of the
convention.
It was in stark contrast to the version contained in the
Indonesian NGOs' report, which disclosed that the practice of
torture against citizens still continued.
The report underlined three main patterns of torture: First,
torture used to force citizens to give up their political rights,
which occurred in conflict areas such as Aceh and Papua. Second,
torture used to force citizens to give up their property like
land or other economic resources. Third was torture arising from
abuses by military and police officers.
The Indonesian NGOs also slammed the Indonesian official
delegation for rejecting an appeal from the committee that
Indonesia invite its special rapporteur to hold investigations
into several torture cases in Indonesia.
"It shows that Indonesia has no commitment to prevent
torture," said Munarman, adding that such a rejection could
damage the country's image in the international community.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said on Tuesday
there was an urgent need for the country to improve on its
record, especially in eliminating torture, but underlined that it
would take time.
"We need to engage in self-improvement to eliminate torture. I
believe we could eliminate such occurrences if the security
forces understood the regulations and respected human rights ...
but it requires a change of approach to improve our ability to
respect human rights," the minister said.