Indonesia has failed to use its influence to urge other Southeast Asian countries
to improve their own commitments to upholding human rights, a leading watchdog
says.
Haris Azhar, coordinator of the
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said in a
statement on Sunday that despite chairing the rights commission of the
10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations from 2009 to 2012, Jakarta has
been reluctant to use its influence to petition for greater protection of
rights.
Most notably, he said, Indonesia
has failed to take a “productive stance” on abuses against the minority
Rohingya community in Myanmar.
He said this silence went against
the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s own ambitions of contributing to the
democratization process in Myanmar.
“Indonesia’s position as the
chair of the Asean Human Rights Commission has not yet been put to use in
strengthening commitments of other members [and] pushing for progress on human
rights,” Haris said.
“Indonesia’s strength in Asean
and its domestic democracy have also not been used to contribute to meaningful
change for human rights in Asean.”
He added that the Indonesian
delegation to the rights commission has the potential to lobby for greater
awareness and respect for human rights across the region, lauding the team as
professional, transparent and competent.
“To date, the governments of
Indonesia and Thailand are the only ones who allow open public participation in
nominating candidates to the Asean rights commission,” he said.
“We need to maintain this system
of open participation and even boost its quality so that Indonesia can serve as
an example for the other countries in Asean. Ultimately, we hope all other
countries in the region will practice the openness now shown by Indonesia.”
Indonesia’s representative to the
rights commission, Rafendi Djamin, was appointed in 2009 and is an activist
from the Human Rights Working Group.
With the inaugural batch of
commissioners set to end their three-year-terms on Oct. 23, the governments of
the 10 Asean member states are preparing to select new representatives.
Haris highlighted greater
transparency as something new commissioners should be committed to
spearheading. He also stressed the need for more efforts to nudge other
countries toward a greater commitment to upholding human rights.
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