Veronica Kusuma, Jakarta – The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is scheduled to begin its session on June 19. This session will mark an important step in the human rights struggle around the world.

Last March, many were dismayed when the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), which is now part of the Council, suspended its session several times. These delays led to the deferment of any urgent action on human rights issues, including the formal adoption of the draft International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance.

The Convention fills a huge gap in international law: the absence at the universal level of a treaty addressing gross human rights violations and the international crime that is enforced disappearance.

The enforced disappearance of people is one of the most heinous human rights violations. The victim, deprived of all rights and thus placed outside the protection of the law, is reduced to a situation of total vulnerability at the hands of the perpetrators. The Commission's intersessional Working Group spent several years drafting this text. The Working Group adopted it by consensus on Sept. 23, 2005, thanks to the constructive spirit of all delegations. The Draft Convention is now ready for adoption.

Since 1980, when the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was established as the first ever independent inquiry mechanism of the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission has made tireless efforts to fight this terrible practice.

In 1992, the Commission adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. In 2006, as this work is nearing its end, it would be senseless for the Council not to confirm its commitment against enforced disappearance by adopting the Draft International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Postponing the adoption of such an important text would be an act of betrayal toward the families of victims that have been working for its adoption for many years. Procedural matters should not be allowed to trump protection for the families of victims.

The Human Rights Council is the replacement for the 60-year old UNCHR. The UNCHR has long been criticized for seating gross human rights violators, enabling them to protect themselves and their allies from scrutiny and punishment for their own human right abuses.

Together with 46 countries from every continent, Indonesia is one of the important members of this council. Ironically, Indonesia has a bad record on dealing with involuntary disappearance issues.

Besides the greatest tragedy, the crackdown on alleged communists in 1965, Indonesia is still coping with involuntary disappearance cases from the 1984 Tanjung Priok incident, the 1989 Talang Sari incident, the turbulent period of 1997-98, and the unrest in Aceh and Papua. The 1997 and 1998 cases involving kidnappings of pro-democratic activists are now in the hands of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), but the commission appears powerless in the face of rejection and resistance by the suspected perpetrators of disappearances, especially TNI (the Indonesian Military).

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances has noted that Asia holds the largest number of involuntary disappearances on record. Indonesia itself has at least 1,266 cases between 1965 and 2002, mostly in areas like Aceh and Papua where the military clashed with rebellious factions. The greatest number of disappearances allegedly happened between 1998 and 2000.

In Asia, only Japan and Sri Lanka supported the drafting of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance. Big countries like China and India have refused to support it. Indonesia has abstained.

Consequently, many organizations have lobbied to push all member states of the Human Rights Council to give the highest priority to approving the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance this month, during the first session of the Human Rights Council. Then it can be forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption.

The Indonesian government should contribute to this process. This will demonstrate not only its determination to promote and protect human rights, but also its transformation into a truly democratic society.

[The writer is Indonesia Country Coordinator for AFAD (Asia Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance) and can be reached at pravdavero@gmail.com.]