Jakarta – Both Indonesian and international activists are pressuring the Indonesian government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
"Indonesia has a large number of cases related to enforced disappearance, which the government has failed to address," Usman Hamid from the Commission for Missing Person and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said Monday at the 4th Congress of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD).
He said that past military actions were believed to have led to violations of human rights, including the enforced disappearances of some people in Indonesia.
"The ratification is important for Indonesia as a beginning of an attempt to eradicate enforced disappearances," the Chairman of the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) Abdul Haris Semendawai said, adding that it was also important to legally recognize enforced disappearances as crimes by establishing a national law.
AFAD secretary-general Mary Aileen Bacalso explained that eradicating enforced disappearances was urgent to save precious lives, especially in Asia and Indonesia where many cases had happened.
According to the 2009 the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) Annual Report, enforced disappearances are still occurring in 100 countries, 30 of which are in Asia.
The UNWGEID chairman Jeremy Sarkin emphasized that enforced disappearances were among the worst human rights violations ever carried out by governments against citizens. "It turns humans into non-humans." he said.
"It infringes on many human rights at the same time, including the right to life, the right not to be tortured, the right to dignity, the right to a fair trial and the right of access to justice," Sarkin said.
He explained that governments often used it to punish or silence opposition groups or individuals.
"There is a lack of binding law and it is hard to prove," Sarkin said, explaining why eradication was difficult. He added that some governments rejected the idea of establishing laws on this as well being against ratifying the Convention.
In 1980, the UN set up a Working Group to channel information between victims or family members and the government about enforced or involuntary disappearances.
In 1992, the UN adopted a non-binding universal standard in the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The UN then adopted a legally-binding instrument in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on Dec. 20, 2006. The Convention was then opened for signatures on Feb. 6, 2007.
By December 2009, 83 states had signed the Convention, while 18 had ratified it. The Convention becomes a legally-binding international treaty once ratified by 20 countries.
Among the 18 countries which have ratified it only one, Japan, is from Asia. The others are Albania, Argentina, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Honduras, France, Senegal, Spain, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Uruguay and Mali. "We are eager to ratify the Convention," the human rights director general at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, said. (ipa)