President condemns rights abuse
JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Wednesday that state institutions and regulations were susceptible to abuse by state apparatus in the violation of human rights.
Addressing the opening of an international workshop on crimes against humanity at the State Palace, the President called on all institutions, including the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police, to undertake internal restructuring to ensure the protection of human rights.
At least 150 delegates representing government and academic institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations, attended the workshop supported by the Dutch, British, Canadian, Norwegian and Swedish governments.
Abdurrahman said certain regulations had been enforced to the detriment of humanity. He appealed for sweeping changes to the regulations in a bid to protect the rights of citizens.
The President, however, warned people against expecting too much from the existing institutions, "because it is often the case that such agencies are exploited by certain officials to justify violations".
Citing an example, he labeled the TNI and National Police as institutions prone to abuse, which would infringe the basic rights of citizens, particularly in the past.
The President attributed the obstacles in human rights awareness to decades of oppressive policies, the lack of personnel to introduce necessary changes and occasional attempts by certain parties to obstruct reform.
"All the constraints must be taken into account in expediting the improvement of our legal system, particularly regarding the enforcement of HAM (basic human rights)," he said.
The plight to encourage legal reform should also be shared by leaders of the TNI and National Police, and not just the minister of justice, the President concluded.
The two-day international workshop is discussing many human rights issues, including the principle of retroactivity.
Retroactive
Human rights activists have argued that non-retroactive principles in the prosecution of human rights perpetrators is not absolute and that newly-endorsed laws can be used to prosecute past offenders.
In a session held at the Attorney General's Office, lawyer Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara asserted that non-retroactivity could be ignored in the case of gross human rights violations.
"The non-retroactive principle has been formulated as a human right, where no one can be prosecuted under a law which was not endorsed when the alleged crime was committed. But this principle cannot be used as a defense to escape prosecution.
"What if the crime was the violation of human rights? Such a crime, although it had not been considered in the nation's criminal law, has violated the state's morality and basic philosophy. So there should be legal action against the perpetrators," he said.
The non-retroactive principle is stated in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which reads that no one shall be held guilty of any criminal offense on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offense, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed.
Indonesia has adopted the principle in its Amendment of the 1945 Constitution, located in Article 28 (i).
However, to the contrary, the House of Representatives endorsed Law No. 26 on the Human Rights Tribunal in 2000, which contains a retroactive principle.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan, who is also a speaker at the workshop, said that Law No. 26 is still effective, since judges do not have the authority to question the existence of the law.
"Legally, the retroactive principle can still be applied to gross human rights violations, such as genocide and crime against humanity," he said on the sidelines of the workshop. (bby)