Despite
its promises in 2007, the government of Indonesia has not ratified the
UN Convention on
Protection from Enforced Disappearance. Civil society organisations
including Komisi Untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan
(KontraS), a FORUM-ASIA member, highlighted the "great slowness" of the
process in a statement here, issued on 17 April 2009.
Despite
its promises in 2007, the government of Indonesia has not ratified the
UN Convention on
Protection from Enforced Disappearance. Civil society organisations
including Komisi Untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan
(KontraS), a FORUM-ASIA member, highlighted the "great slowness" of the
process in a statement below, issued on 17 April 2009.

Ratification of Convention on
Protection from Enforced Disappearance as Part of the Commitment to Protect
Victims of Human Rights Violations

IKOHI and KontraS, supported by the Madres de the Plaza de Mayo of
Argentina, AFAD and Amnesty Internasional request the National Commission of
Human Rights to give special attention to the great slowness of the process to
sign the Convention on Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as
the government of Indonesia promised during a session of the United Nations
Human Rights Council in March 2007. In this session, Hamid Awaluddin, as the
Minister of Law and Human Rights, stated that the government's National Plan of
Action of recent years testifies to its strength of purpose in upholding human
rights.

Formal adoption of the Convention to Protect All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance by the UN at the end of 2006 marks a long struggle of sweat,
blood, and tears of mothers of families of the disappeared, including the
mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina. Mothers of the disappeared in
Indonesia are involved through the active role of KontraS and Ikohi as members
of the Asian Federation Against Disappearances (AFAD).

This convention obligates states to take strategic steps to investigate acts
of enforced disappearance by individuals or groups acting without the
"authorization, support or acquiescence of the State and to bring those
responsible to justice" (Article 3).

We view the National Commission for Human Rights as a strategic institution
to join in urging for ratification of this convention. As Indonesia's primary
human rights institution, the National Commission for Human Rights can use its
authority to conduct research on the urgency of ratifying the Convention, then
recommending to the Government that the Convention immediately be put on the
docket for the National Legislation Program of 2010. This would be a clear sign
of the government's commitment to protect victims of human rights violations.

While the legal process for various cases of enforced disappearance in
Indonesia ends at a dead end, ratification of this convention is especially
important to prevent similar cases from occurring in the future. It is also
important that perpetrators responsible for these violations be brought to
justice in order to deter others. It is truly regrettable that at this time
perpetrators, who should be held accountable, are instead competing for the
leadership of this nation.

Once again, we ask the National Commission for Human Rights to take an
active role in moving forward this issue. The movement of mothers of victims of
enforced disappearance who have struggled for ratification of this UN
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is a
universal movement that asks the state to be accountable for a question that,
until now, remains unanswered: Where are the victims who remain disappeared and
what is their fate?