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coalition of Indonesian civil society organizations urged the government to take a firm position against Myanmar by supporting draft resolutions on human rights violations in Rakhine state at the ongoing 39th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR)

The gathering is being held in Geneva from Sept. 10 to 28, with high-level discussions covering various human rights issues, such as the right to privacy, rights of persons with disabilities, rights of children and rights of minorities.

Senior researcher at Amnesty International Indonesia Papang Hidayat said Indonesia was opposing the resolutions’ proposal for the UN Human Rights Council to ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution approving the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation of gross human rights violations committed in Myanmar.

The draft resolutions were submitted by the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“We have sent a letter asking Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi to support the drafts, but it seems like Indonesia had some problem with the ICC,” Papang told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday.

He said Indonesia had so far been seen as a progressive country in terms of supporting the plight of the Rohingya by opening access to humanitarian assistance in Myanmar and Bangladesh. However, he said, in terms of seeking accountability through the ICC, Indonesia still seemed reluctant.

Rachel Arini from Forum Asia said that although Indonesia was not a UNHCR member and had a vote in the adoption of the resolution, as a country with largest Muslim population, it held an important diplomatic role within the OIC.

“This resolution is very important following the conclusion of the fact finding mission on Myanmar, and who will implement the crucial recommendations in the report,” she said, referring to the 440-page report issued by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry’s human rights director, Achsanul Habib, said Indonesia had been very active in drafting resolutions in the UN, especially on Myanmar.

“The issue is the content of the resolutions, because we are dealing with a sovereign country [and] highly complex issues,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia was not opposing accountability for the violence in Myanmar, he said, but it was not very relevant for Indonesia to talk about possible prosecution through the ICC, not being a state party to the Rome Statute.

In addition to actively participating at the UN level, he said Indonesia had been trying to empower the regional human rights body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), to also be more active in dealing with Myanmar.

However, Papang said the commission was not a proper regional human rights mechanism on account of its internal problems.

“The AICHR doesn’t even have the mechanism to accept and discuss reports from people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rachel said it was important for Indonesia to pick a representative who could “push the envelope” in keeping human rights issues in Myanmar a priority in ASEAN, as the commission had failed to discuss the issue.

The Foreign Ministry is currently selecting a representative for the 2019-2021 period. The current representative, Dinna Wisnu, is applying for her second term, along with three other human rights experts: Patricia Rinwigati from the University of Indonesia’s (UI) School of Law, former National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Roichatul Aswidah and Yuyun Wahyuningrum from the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).