President 'accounts for human rights implementation'

JAKARTA (JP): A constitutional law expert has suggested that clauses on human rights be included in the State Policy Guidelines to enable the nation to demand the President's accountability for Indonesia's rights record.

The option was preferred to establishing a special People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree on the subject, according to Yusril Ihza Mahendra of the University of Indonesia in a discussion here.

"The adoption of clauses on human rights as a part of the State Policy Guidelines means that their application comes under the supervision of the House of Representatives and the President will have to include them in his or her accountability speech before the People's Consultative Assembly," said Yusril.

The discussion was held by the Golkar faction in the Assembly in response to a long spell of polemics on whether Indonesia is in need of its own bill of rights in the form of a separate MPR decree.

Golkar has submitted to the Assembly its draft of the 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines which includes clauses on human rights protection under a section on law development.

While the Armed Forces and regional representatives factions follow in Golkar's footsteps, minority factions the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) demanded a separate and stronger decree on human rights.

The Assembly will deliberate the PPP and PDI drafts of human rights charter from Dec. 11 to Dec. 16.

Yusril, also an Assembly member representing Golkar, said a separate decree would not help bring about improved human rights because such a decree did not have the power to be enforced.

He added such a decree would spark more debate because people in the country have different views on human rights.

He said several decrees established by the provisional Assembly in the past have never worked until today.

They include a decree to award youth activists as national heroes for their demand to ban the Indonesian Communist Party in 1966, and another which bans people from promoting communism.

Yusril offered a way-out of the protracted debate by asking the government to set up a new law which contains human rights protection compiled from all the country's present laws. The new law should be socialized through a presidential decree, he said.

"The way-out is far simpler and will not spark debate, because the laws which contribute to the so-called law on human rights have been approved by the House and the President," he said.

Secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights, Baharuddin Lopa, said he personally preferred a separate decree because it would give a strong legal basis to human rights protection.

"The decree is aimed at avoiding arbitrary governance by the power holders. It seems to me that the decree must affect the government officials first because they tend to abuse human rights," Lopa said.

He said since the rights body inception in 1993, it had reported 7,000 cases of human rights violations, most of them committed by government officials.

Lopa questioned Golkar's reasons for refusing "the mounting demand for a human rights charter", saying that it would only raise allegations that the dominant party hampers democratization.

"As the biggest political organization, Golkar should agree on the rising demand to increase public confidence," Lopa said.

Separately yesterday, women's rights activists called for the revocation of policies which they alleged have intensified gender stereotypes and restricted women's access to economic, social and political roles.

They claimed that such policies, which are partly stipulated in the State Policy Guidelines, Marriage Law and Manpower Law, had discriminated women in society, their households and their professional environment.

The activists said that the government's attitude toward women's roles was contrary to the United Nations' Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Indonesia ratified in 1984.

"The government's ambivalent attitude greatly contributed to the discrepancy between its will to eliminate discrimination and to promote women's status, with the legal practices and policies," said Nursyahbani Katjasungkana who chairs the Women's Group for Monitoring the Implementation of CEDAW.

She said so-called "women's double roles" -- touted by the government in 1978 as a concept to enhance women's roles both inside and outside the home -- had overly burdened women.

"If women are ordered to play a double role, so should men. There should be programs for men to train them in domestic work, so both men and women can share (the role)," said Nursyahbani. (amd/09)