Rights body to focus on political cases
Rights body to focus on political cases
JAKARTA (JP): Deputy chairman of the National Commission on
Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Marzuki Darusman, says that in the
future the commission will be more "politically oriented".
The commission will pay more attention to political cases and
reduce its attention to what Marzuki described as "common cases."
Up to now, the commission has often had to deal with complaints
on land appropriations or the effects of high-voltage power
plants on people's health.
"We expect to be more political-oriented in the future,"
Marzuki said at a luncheon held by the Indonesian Executive
Circle yesterday. "The rights commission will concentrate more on
how to better supervise government's policies."
He stressed, however, that changes in the commission's
orientation would be made gradually.
He said that the commission has started shifting its
orientation recently by starting to deal with cases that arise
from the government's long-term policies and from poor law
enforcement. It has also begun to concentrate more on the
question of people's political rights.
The commission has recently stated that it will review laws
which allegedly abuse human rights.
He cited the laws on the press, newspaper publishing licenses
and political parties as examples of laws which need to be
reviewed.
The commission, together with a number of non-governmental
organizations, is currently making an inventory of laws which may
go against human rights.
Commission Secretary-General Baharuddin Lopa said last week
that the commission has made a list of priority law reviews. "The
top priority is a review of the anti-subversion law," he said.
Marzuki said the commission is currently kept busy with common
cases like land and labor disputes.
He said that the commission has received reports on more than
4,000 cases since it was established in 1993. "We receive two to
three reports a day," he added.
The commission was established under Presidential Decree No.
50/1993. The decree states that the rights commission will only
make recommendations in settling disputes and avoid interfering
in cases which are already heard by the courts.
Twenty-five Indonesians from various fields were appointed as
the commission's members. Former Supreme Court chief justice Ali
Said was appointed commission chief.
A number of members of the House of Representatives recently
criticized the rights commission for having acted beyond its
authority and areas of responsibility.
Marzuki said several tasks of the commission can be handled by
the political parties, the House or legal institutions.
Marzuki called for political reforms yesterday in order to
improve the commission's performance.
"The rights commission will do better in a more conducive
political condition," he said, as quoted by Antara.(imn)