Assessing Commitment on Human Rights

2008-parpol-en.pdf

Human rights, as a universal value, mostly have been adopted by Government of Indonesia. Until 2008, at least two (2) covenants and four (4) conventions have been ratified by Government of Indonesia. The normative performance on human rights has shown the seriousness of Government of Indonesia to make international human rights laws to be part of Indonesian national laws. As well, Indonesian Constitution, the Constitution of Republic of Indonesia 1945, has emphasized guarantee of constitutional rights of its citizens.

Ratification and affirmation of guarantee of citizens’ constitutional rights required the State executives to fulfill their obligation, by harmonizing legislations, amending legislations, as well as direct actions of State executives in the life of State and nation and in providing public services.

Nevertheless, the enforcement of human rights has not been directly proportional with the normative guarantee as enshrined in the ratified covenants and conventions. The enforcement of human rights which has not been optimum in Indonesia is due to not only deviation of international human rights law, but also the low commitment of the State executives in promoting, protecting and fulfilling human rights.

Political parties, which by democracy mechanism have become one of mechanisms to recruit State executives, have an important role in assuring the commitment and consistency of human rights enforcement in Indonesia. Law No. 2 Year 2008 on Political Parties has emphasized that political parties have obligation “to highly respect the supremacy of law, democracy and human rights” (Article 3 Point a). Although they are not the party that signs the commitment of human rights enforcement as a State Party does, since candidates of State executives among others come from political parties, political parties should show their commitment on human rights. By having a serious commitment, when the aforementioned political parties become State executives, either as Parliament members or as executives, the commitment on human rights enforcement is able to be fulfilled.

In the General Election 2009, there are going to be 44 political parties participated; those are composed of 38 national political parties and 6 local parties of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. In order to encourage commitment of political parties on human rights enforcement, SETARA Institute and Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (Perhimpunan Bantuan Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Indonesia/PBHI) made an assessment of the 38 national political parties.

The full report is available in PDF format: Download