Ismira Lutfia – A cabinet minister has promised to sign and ratify an international convention to protect people from enforced disappearance, but critics say it will be meaningless without supporting government action and legislation.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said on Monday his office and the House of Representatives had agreed to fast-track the ratification of all international treaties and conventions on human rights, which are currently not included in the list of high-priority legislation.
Speaking at a seminar on the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Patrialis said the government was committed to enforcing and upholding human rights, as enshrined in the country's Constitution.
"Involuntary disappearance that is not legally sanctioned under prevailing laws or a court ruling represents an abuse of human rights," he said, declining to say if this meant state-sanctioned abductions were warranted.
The UN adopted the convention in 2006. To date, 83 countries are signatories to it, but only 18 have ratified it. The convention will enter force once it has been ratified by 20 countries. Indonesia is not yet a signatory to the convention.
Jeremy Sarkin, chairman of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, called on all countries that had not signed or ratified the convention to do so as soo n as possible.
Papang Hidayat, research head at Indonesia's Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), lauded the House for recommending the prompt ratification of the convention, but said it would not ensure an end to state-sanctioned abductions unless it was supported by effective legislation that was retroactively applicable to past abuses.
"However, it will force Indonesia to be accountable to the international community on this issue," he said.
Papang also called on the government to sign and ratify the convention as proof of its human rights leadership in the Southeast Asian region.
Ifdhal Kasim, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), also urged Indonesia to sign the convention.
The UN's Sarkin, however, said that merely signing the convention was not enough. "Signing a treaty is often done to create the perception that there is a commitment to deal with that particular issue," he said. "That is not always the case."
Sarkin said that for the convention to be a success, individual countries had to pass domestic laws specifically dealing with the issue of enforced disappearances.
"States should enact legislation that criminalizes enforced disappearance, from the person ordering the behavior to the person carrying out the action," he said.
The UN working group's 2009 annual report said that enforced disappearances were still occurring in 100 countries, including 30 countries in Asia.
Mary Aileen D Bacalso, the secretary general of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, pointed out that no country in Asia had a domestic law criminalizing enforced disappearance.
"This is also compounded by the reality that there are only a few Asian countries that have national human rights institutions, while most Asian countries have no effective judicial system to prosecute perpetrators, thus perpetuating impunity," she said.