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Jakarta Post

Your letters: PLN'€™s rights abuse at home

And while migrant workers have their rights abused abroad, millions locally are having their rights abused by the government, especially PLN in Sumatra

The Jakarta Post
Fri, November 27, 2015

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Your letters: PLN'€™s rights abuse at home

A

nd while migrant workers have their rights abused abroad, millions locally are having their rights abused by the government, especially PLN in Sumatra.

As quoted, '€œThe confusion over access to electricity as a human right is because there is a dearth of human rights treaties that explicitly mention that it is a human right. In fact, there is only the Convention on the Elimination on Discrimination Against Women that provides for it as a right: '€œStates should take steps to ensure that. Women [...] shall enjoy adequate living conditions particularly in relation to electricity.'€

Despite this paucity of literal sources for the right to access to electricity, it is accepted in the field that this right is covered by Article 11 of the International Covenant on the Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which imposes an obligation on state parties to the Covenant to '€œrecognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and the continuous improvement of living conditions.'€

Essentially, this obligation requires every nation to provide human habitation with all the accompanying facilities in it, such as electricity. As opined by a leading NGO: '€œInadequate power supply is one issue that generates feelings of helplessness, sometimes anger or outright disgust. Experience has clearly shown that the absence of electricity constitutes one single major factor impeding the full achievement of these rights.'€

Before pointing to other nations and the alleged rights abuses, focus on all the issues the UN says are human rights abuses within the country. It'€™s because of the internal rights abuses that 6.5 million Indonesians leave in the hope of earning enough money to improve their livelihoods, yet the government, specifically PLN, denies them.

Willo1246
Jakarta

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