Abstract
Based on some reports of people’s satisfaction and assessment of the Indonesian House of Representatives Commission III on the performance of Komnas HAM in 2016, it was indicated that Komnas HAM was one of the State institution in questions because the Komnas HAM lacks a standard handling of human rights reporting. Besides issues on its internal performance impacting negatively on human rights protection in Indonesia, Komnas HAM has constraints to investigate and monitor past human rights violations as well as some recommendations were often a problem, and many institutions do not follow the recommendations made by Komnas HAM. Some tasks have not been resolved, particularly seven cases of past human rights violations, which are the Trisakti incident, Semanggi I and Semanggi II, the Talangsari, incident, enforced disappearances, mysterious shootings, massacres after the G30S/PKI incident and the May 1998 riots.
This chapter observes obstacles in the implementation of human rights protection in the context of the Constitution, some problems and discrepancies between human rights laws and related laws in connection with future human rights protection with the new Commissioners, the weak power of Komnas HAM and its recommendations. This chapter also analyzes the current government regime that tends to choose non-judicial settlement as an example to apply a national reconciliation than prosecution as well as future government plans to form the Council of National Harmony (DKN). DKN is a body established to resolve horizontal conflicts internally.
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Notes
- 1.
Review of Komnas HAM 2012–2017. The NGOs Coalition comprises the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (Elsam), the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Walhi Environmental Forum (Walhi) and a number of other organizations.
- 2.
Submission to the United Nations Third Universal Periodic Review, 27th Session of the Working Group on the UPR Human Rights Council, September 2016, The Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).
- 3.
National Action Plan on Human Rights is regulated under Presidential Regulation No. 5 of 2015 on National Action Plans on Human Rights 2015–2019.
- 4.
PemerintahIndonesia telah meratifikasi 8 instrumen kunci hukum HAM internasional, yakni: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW), Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (CRPD).
- 5.
Available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/TreatyBodies.aspx. The human rights treaty bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. Each state party to a treaty has an obligation to take steps to ensure that everyone in the state can enjoy the rights set out in the treaty. There are ten human rights treaty bodies composed of independent experts of recognized competence in human rights, who are nominated and elected for fixed renewable terms of four years by state parties.
- 6.
Articles 28A–28J 1945 Constitution regulates the right to life, the right to form a family and to continue the offspring, the child is entitled to protection from violence and discrimination, the right to education, the protection of the law, the right to receive fair remuneration in the employment relationship, the freedom of every believer in trust, the right to adequate health services, the right not to be tortured, the right to religion, the right not to be enslaved and others.
- 7.
Principles relating to the status of national institutions (the Paris Principles), GA Resolution 48/134 20 December 1993.
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Evanty, N. (2020). Komnas HAM: Discrepancies Between Its Mandate and the Indonesian Constitutional Framework. In: Gomez, J., Ramcharan, R. (eds) National Human Rights Institutions in Southeast Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1074-8_7
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