Jakarta – Indonesian human rights activists said Friday that despite many shortcomings, the efforts to improve human rights awareness in Indonesia have started to show results.

Haris Azhar of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said there had been concrete progress in Indonesia in 2007 that had earned it international recognition.

"Some of the country's notable achievements in 2007 are the visit of three high-ranking officials of the United Nations overseeing human rights issues, and Indonesia's presidency of the UN Human Rights Council," said Haris.

The three UN officials invited by Indonesia were Louise Arbour, High Commissioner on Human Rights; Hina Jilani, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders; and Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Haris was speaking at a press conference to commemorate World Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 and also the nearing 60th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Declaration in 2008.

Ali Akbar Tanjung, of the Human Rights Working Group, said the government should work harder to maintain the positive image Indonesia has gained in the international community.

"There are at least five recommendations that have to be followed up by the government," he said.

"Three recommendations are from UN human rights envoys visiting Indonesia in 2007. The other two are from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women."

However, Asfinawati, of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said from the point of view of the victims of rights violations there had been no significant improvement. "The government is still unable to function as the country's main human rights enforcer. The Munir murder case, the Lapindo mudflow case and the Alas Tlogo shooting case are some examples of this."

Also during the conference, Asfinawati and two other speakers, Usman Hamid of Kontras and Uli Parulian Sihombing of the Indonesian Legal Resource Center, cited state intervention that threatened the freedom of religion as an example of the government's ambiguity and ambivalence in improving human rights conditions in Indonesia.

Usman said the government's prohibition of religious sects, as in the case of Al-Qiyadah Al-Islamiyah, was procedurally inappropriate.

"This should have first gone to court, instead of only being the decision of the Attorney General's Office," he said. "The government should reorganize its system if it wants to be serious in integrating the country's laws with the values stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Uli Parulian Sihombing said in the case of preserving freedom of religion, law enforcement was still very weak. "We can see this from the increasing incidence of vandalism related to religion or faith issues," he said. (uwi)