Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) have been deemed the political organizations with the greatest commitment to human rights, while the Golkar Party and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party are the least committed, a study has found.

A research project conducted by the Setara Institute – a NGO focused on pluralism and human rights – in December looked at whether parties included human rights in their statute and how they aimed to tackle the major issues.

The National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) were ranked in the middle in terms of their approach to human rights.

The study found while most parties promoted some of the key principles of human rights, such as civil and economic rights for citizens, ruling parties like Golkar and the Democratic Party only paid lip service to the notion of human rights and looked into rights abuse cases only when they stood to gain something.

The study suggested this lack of government emphasis on human rights led to the easy passage of the ban on the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect, the spread of Sharia-inspired bylaws in regions and lawmakers passing the discriminative and controversial pornography bill.

Setara Institute executive director Hendardi said that most, if not all, parties had failed to consistently uphold the principles of human rights when responding to various issues.

"If the promotion and implementation of human rights boosts their popularity, parties will take action. If not, they ignore them," he said in Jakarta on Monday.

This attitude has become evident in the reopening of several high profile human rights cases that have implicated retired generals. The investigations into the abduction of human rights activists, the Talangsari mayhem, the Tanjung Priok massacre and the 1998 Semanggi shooting have all been plagued by weak responses from the government.

PDI-P and PKB were seen as the most committed in terms of upholding human rights principles due to their pro-human stance in many of cases.

In the Semanggi shooting case, PDI-P, PKB, PAN and PDS supported the reopening of the case and the use of a human rights specific court to try those responsible. On the contrary, Golkar, the Democratic Party, PKS and United Development Party (PPP) rejected the action, preferring the use of a military court.

Golkar and the Democratic Party also responded negatively to the reopening of cases into the abduction of activists, which could implicate the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) chairman Prabowo Subianto and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) chairman Wiranto. PDI-P and PKB supported the move.

In regard to issues of religious freedom the PDI-P and PKB rejected the three-minister decree banning Ahmadiyah while Golkar and the Democratic Party supported it. PDI-P and PDS were the only two parties to disagree with the passage of the pornography bill.

The Setara Institute, however, did acknowledge some achievements of the House of Representatives in promoting human rights, such as through the passage of the 2006 law on the protection of witnesses and victims, the 2007 law on eradication of human trafficking and the 2008 law on the termination of racial and ethnic discrimination.