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Human rights legislation put on the back burner
Jakarta Post - January 6, 2014
The House's Legislative Body (Baleg) has included four pro-human right bills in the 2014 National Legislative Program: the planned revisions to the 1999 Human Rights Law and the 1997 law on the rights of disabled persons, the indigenous groups' rights bill and the gender equality bill.
Additionally, the lawmakers have been deliberating the ratification of several international human rights instruments such as the UN convention against involuntary disappearances and the Rome Statute, which will allow the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression that take place in Indonesia.
The House has yet to begin any discussion on the revision of the 1999 Human Rights Law, although the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) submitted a proposal to Baleg in November 2012 in which it demanded that the rights body be granted stronger authority as well as immunity from legal prosecution.
Komnas HAM Commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said that her office had received 6,493 complaints as of November last year.
"It's clear that public trust in Komnas HAM is increasing. But, we cannot effectively endorse our authority [to respond to the complaints] due to 'weak' stipulations in the existing [Human Rights Law]," Roichatul said.
Roichatul cited the lack of authority to subpoena anyone to testify in rights abuse cases.
Article 95 of the existing law says that Komnas HAM can ask the chief of a court to force a witness to testify, but the law's explanatory section says that a witness can reject the summons and pay a fine. "The draft revision is aimed to not allow anyone skip a summons," Roichatul said.
On Sunday, Komnas HAM chairwoman Siti Noor Laila echoed similar concerns, saying that the rights body's limited authority undermined its efforts to resolve cases of past rights violations, such as the 1965 anti-communist purge, the summary execution-style killings between 1982 and 1985, known locally as mysterious shootings or Petrus, or the 1998 May riots.
"It has taken years for us to resolve such cases because of the limited power mandated to us and the political tension in the country. Nonetheless, we aim to resolve these cases before the country inaugurates a new president; and it seems that related government institutions are with us on this."
The House's Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affairs and informatics said it had to postpone the adoption of the UN convention against involuntary disappearances, although it had completed deliberations.
Commission I chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said the postponement was inevitable because although all lawmakers from Commission I supported the importance of adopting the UN convention, many believed that it was not urgent to do so.
Among those who are reluctant to endorse the adoption are lawmakers from the Great Indonesian Movement (Gerindra) Party and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).
"But we have scheduled to make the final decision on the matter as soon as the House resumes activity [on Jan. 20]. It is among our priorities in the upcoming session," Mahfudz, a politician from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said.
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