Rights draft fails to focus on basic tenets

Rights draft fails to focus on basic tenets

JAKARTA (JP): A member of the National Commission on Human
Rights has criticized the People's Consultative Assembly's draft
decree on human rights protection for failing to focus on the
basic tenets of human rights.

Marzuki Darusman said a number of more essential rights should
have been included rather than those which are currently
contained such as the right to development, to worship, and to
have a family.

"They are the right to live, to individual protection and to
humane treatment," he told journalists in his office here
yesterday when asked what basic rights should be included in the
draft.

Marzuki maintained that a decree on human rights should focus
on these basic rights. "These rights could not be denied and
compromised under any circumstances."

A People's Consultative Assembly team completed Thursday a
draft decree on human rights protection to be incorporated in the
1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines.

The seven-point draft reaffirms the recognition and commitment
of rights for the people, which includes the right to
development, to worship and to have a family.

Marzuki said that the right to worship was not necessary since
it is already guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution stipulates that the state
shall guarantee freedom to adhere to his or her respective
religion and to perform his or her religious duties.

Despite its shortcomings, Marzuki still praised the draft as
it urges the government to ratify the 1948 Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and other related international covenants and
enforces laws to ensure its rights protection.

"Acknowledgement of the importance to ratify the international
covenants is somewhat of a progress, although they still seem to
be very selective in adopting articles of these covenants,"
Marzuki said.

In 1966, the United Nations endorsed two covenants and one
optional protocol on human rights to be ratified by its member
countries.

They are the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, and the Optional Protocol for the Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. (10)