Fidelis E. Satriastanti – The government's upcoming report on human rights conditions here to the United Nations is a fluff piece that glosses over the true state of affairs in the country, a rights activist said over the weekend.

Elfansuri, a senior official at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said on Saturday that the report for the Universal Periodic Review was "quite normative."

"It talks about the positive when it doesn't need to," she said. "It should talk about the problems, such as the growing intolerance toward minority groups who should be getting protection from the government."

She also said the report, to be presented at the UPR in Geneva on Wednesday, made it seem as if the long-running standoff over the GKI Yasmin church in Bogor was over, when in reality the local authorities were continuing to keep it sealed off in spite of a Supreme Court order to reopen the church.

"The report just says that there has been a ruling on the matter by the Supreme Court, which any uninformed person would assume meant the conflict was resolved. But it's not, the terror continues," Elfansuri said.

"It also says that Komnas HAM is working with the police on the issue of LGBT and minority rights, and while that's true, it doesn't mention whether there's been any change in attitude by the police."

She added that in 2010 and 2011, the rights commission had received 30 reports of disputes involving houses of worship.

Choirul Anam, a member of the Indonesian delegation to the UPR, denied that the government had withheld the truth in its report. "The government, with great courage, admits there are a lot of human rights problems here and promises to make changes," he said.

Choirul, from the Human Rights Working Group, said he hoped the upcoming review in Geneva, at which all of the UN member states will present a summary of human rights conditions in their countries, would deliver recommendations that Indonesia could follow up on.

He said that on the issue of religious freedom, there have already been recommendations from civil society groups for the government to repeal a controversial joint ministerial decree on houses of worship.

Since being issued in 2006, the decree has been used by conservative and hard-line Muslims to oppose the presence of churches and mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyah sect.

Another recommendation is for courts to stop "letting the perpetrators off and instead punishing the victims" in cases of religious conflict, and for the police not to show bias in such cases.