Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The United Nations Human Rights Council will review the protection of human rights in Indonesia next month, as part of the council's first-ever Universal Periodic Review, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Soeryo Legowo said Friday.

"As one of the council's elected members, Indonesia is in the first batch for the review commencing April 9," he said. All 192 UN members will undergo the review.

Indonesia was elected to the council in May 2007 along with 13 other countries. The council was established in March 2006.

Also scheduled to undergo the review in April are Bahrain, Ecuador, Tunisia, Morocco, Finland, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Algeria, Poland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Czech Republic and Argentina.

Kristiarto said each country would be reviewed by the council's president, currently Romania, and rapporteurs or troikas consisting of three countries, each from a different region. Indonesia will be scrutinized by Jordan, Canada and Djibouti. Following the review, recommendations will be made.

"We have submitted documents and reports as review materials, listing what we've done to implement the provisions in six UN rights conventions we have ratified," said Kristiarto.

The six are the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention against Torture, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

"The documents also include our responses to visits by special rapporteurs to Indonesia," Kristiarto said, adding Indonesia had had 11 such visits. Indonesia hosted visits last year by rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak and rapporteur on human rights defenders Hina Jilani.

The 2007 annual report by the National Commission on Human Rights concluded the government had not fully delivered the reforms and legal system required by the various rights instruments it had ratified. The commission also highlighted several violent acts by state officers, vigilantism by radical groups, disruption to religious freedom and widespread evictions.

The government has a five-year plan on human rights, signed by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in May 2004. The plan mandates the creation of a national committee, responsible directly to the president, to carry out the provisions.

Activities in the plan include ratification of international rights instruments, reconciliation of contradictory legislation, dissemination of rights regulations and application of rights norms.