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Indonesia accused of avoiding human rights issues
The government’s attitude toward the country’s human rights issues remains avoidant and contradictory to reality, activists said on Monday, after last week’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) session in Geneva put Indonesia on the defensive.
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Portraits of injustice: Members of the Victims Solidarity Network for Justice (JSKK) display pictures of victims of past human rights violations during a rally outside the State Palace on Sept. 14, 2023. It was the 787th edition of the protest, which is held every Thursday. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
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he government’s attitude toward the country’s human rights issues remains avoidant and contradictory to reality, activists said on Monday, after last week’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) session in Geneva, Switzerland, put Indonesia on the defensive.
Questions from ICCPR experts about Indonesia’s human and political rights record, including some scrutinizing outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s neutrality in last month’s general election, were either answered poorly or entirely dismissed by the government, the activists in Jakarta maintained.
In Geneva last week, a document listing 26 human rights notes submitted by various stakeholders, including civil society groups, took center stage in a two-day session on the second ICCPR periodic report on Indonesia. The list highlighted issues ranging from the revised Criminal Code passed last year and past human rights violations to freedom of expression.
The session, some six hours in total, saw the government delegation, led by the Foreign Ministry’s multilateral cooperation director general, boasting “significant developments” in the country’s posture on human rights. The delegation was also at the receiving end of the questions posed by the 18 expert members of the ICCPR.
But Indonesia’s responses, activists said on Monday, were defensive at best and distorted at worst. While most of the human rights questions posed to delegation had been repeatedly brought up at the international level, such as cases of violence in Papua, the government had failed to provide any new answers or offer any meaningful accountability to date, they said.
“The answers given were head-scratchers if not disappointing,” Amnesty International Indonesia office deputy director Wirya Adiwena said at a press briefing in Jakarta on Monday. “It feels like déjà vu. They keep repeating their typical answers, sweeping things under the rug.”
Some questions were even skipped entirely, said other activists present at Monday's press conference, such as Mulki Makmun of Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR).
