Yusril Says Human Rights Bill Needs the Most Criticism

Jakarta (ANTARA) — Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Affairs Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the draft Human Rights Bill was the kind of legislation that required the most criticism.

He said this was because it set limits on the government’s power as the state’s administrator.

“Legislators who only want to hear from people who agree with them may move more quickly, but the result may not necessarily be something fundamental that satisfies us all,” Yusril said at a public discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said the bill had been drafted by the Ministry of Human Rights, which proposed the legislation, and harmonised by the Ministry of Law, with the participation of all stakeholders involved in preparing amendments to the Human Rights Law.

He emphasised that the government fully supported the direction of the reform and the various substantive changes intended to bring the new Human Rights Law in line with current challenges and changing times.

Nevertheless, he said, that support did not diminish the government’s duty to listen to public aspirations.

Yusril said the government recognised that the bill’s draft had attracted substantial criticism and suggestions, and was eager to receive and consider them and reformulate the draft.

“To be frank, I would also say that there are differing views within the government on this bill, let alone among those outside government,” he said.

He considered this normal in a democratic process, as the revised Human Rights Law was expected to be more robust than the law enacted in 1999.

Yusril therefore said that disagreements, critical comments and questions from civil society should not be seen as disrupting the ongoing process of revising the law.

He stressed that all of these were part of drafting the bill. Differences of view on the revision, so long as they were supported by arguments and directed towards the public interest, showed that all parties regarded the formulation of a Human Rights Law as highly important in the current circumstances.