House of Representatives lawmakers and human rights groups have mounted pressure on the government to submit a bill on accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the process has been underway for two years without clarity.

Golkar Party legislator Marzuki Darrusman said the bill should be endorsed in May or June, otherwise the House would no longer have time due to the hectic election schedule.

“With the legislative elections taking place in April 2009, current lawmakers will resume their legislative duties in May at the earliest,”  he said during a meeting organized by the Parliamentarian for Global Action (PGA) at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

“We will continue to work until September 2009.”

The meeting was attended by members of House’s Commission I overseeing foreign affairs and Commission III on legal affairs, and activists from human rights groups — such as the Association of Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (IKOHI) and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM).

PGA members Canadian Senator A. Raynell Andreychuk and Australian MP Melissa Park, and Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia John Holmes also spoke at the meeting.

ICC is the first permanent international criminal jurisdiction, mandated under the 2002 Rome Statute to investigate and adjudicate the most serious violations of human rights and international humanity law — constituting crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

The lawmakers and civil society organizations protested the government for dragging its feet in completing the draft bill and submitting it to the Hosue for deliberation.

“The bill is simple as it only contains several articles,”  a rights activist told the audience. “It’s difficult to accept why it took the government  so long to draw up the bill.”

Director general of human rights at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry Harkristuti Harkrisnowo said the government had completed drafting the bill, including seeking consultation and verification.

“The government missed the 2008 deadline and now the relevant ICC accession bill and its academic paper must be prioritized,” she said.

Meeting attendees acknowledged the importance of the ICC as an international mechanism to fight impunity and prevent atrocities.

“The bill is very important for Indonesia as it can be enforced to try perpetrators of  human rights crimes in the future, particularly if  the Indonesia human rights law fails to respond to serious crimes,”   National Awakening Party (PKB) politician Nursyahbani Katjasungkana told the meeting.

Commission I chairman Theo L. Sambuaga concurred.

“Indonesia is a law-abiding nation with nothing to lose and intends to become an ICC member state,” Golkar Party lawmaker Theo said.

Senator Reynell Andreychuk welcomed Indonesia’s fresh commitment to supporting ICC.

“Indonesia is the fourth most populated country and the largest Muslim-majority country in the world,” he said.

“Indonesia’s input into the ICC will reinforce the position of the majority of states in the world to promote the rule of law, justice and universal human rights.”

Ambassador Holmes, who was  a key-note speaker at the meeting, said the ICC jurisdiction was nonretroactive.

“It’s designed to strengthen national legal systems, which maintain their primary responsibility in bring ing the perpetrators of the most serious crimes to justice,” Holmes, who was involved in drafting and passing the Rome Statute in 1998, said.

Indonesian Military and National Police have reportedly opposed the bill for fear the legislation would be enforced against past human rights violations.

The Rome Statute was adopted and led to the establishment of ICC in July 1998. The court is based in The Hague, the Netherlands.

At present, 139 countries have signed the Rome Statute and 108 as of January 2009 have become parties to it.  

However, several major powers, including the United States, have refused to be a party to the statute. (naf)

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