Gov’t to Follow Up Recommendations on Past Gross Human Rights Violations

President Jokowi leads a Plenary Cabinet Meeting, Monday (1/6) at the State Palace, Jakarta. (Photo: Rahmat/PR)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has instructed his Cabinet to follow up on the acknowledgment of gross human rights violations.

“This morning I asked all relevant ministers, especially from a human rights perspective, to follow up on what I announced last week (human rights violation),” said the President in a Plenary Cabinet Meeting, Monday (01/16), at the State Palace, Jakarta.

The President also asked all ministries to work together to follow up on recommendations from the Team for the Non-Judicial Resolution of Past Gross Human Rights Violations (PPHAM).

This effort, continued the President, is part of strengthening the foundations of political stability, democracy, legal certainty, and a sense of justice, as well as upholding human rights in the country.

On a separate occasion, the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said that President Jokowi will issue a presidential instruction to finalize all recommendations from the PPHAM.

“In the near future, the President will issue a special Presidential Instruction to assign seventeen institutions/ministries and non-ministerial government agencies to coordinate with independent agencies outside the executive to finalize all of the PPHAM Team’s recommendations,” said Mahfud.

Apart from issuing a Presidential Instruction, the President will also form a task force that will evaluate and control the implementation of each recommendation.

“Everything is still being planned. President Jokowi will announce it soon, not later than the end of January,” said Mahfud.

Specifically, for judicial settlements, said Mahfud, the President will continue to pay full attention and ask the Attorney General’s Office to coordinate with the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).

According to him, the judicial settlement has its own path and is different from the non-judicial settlement which is more on the humanitarian side by paying attention to the victims.

“The judiciary is looking for the culprit. So, we differentiate between the victims and the perpetrators. The perpetrators proceed to court as long as it can be proven with the evidence we can collect,” said Mahfud.

For the record, on January 11, apart from acknowledging the existence of gross human rights violations in the past, President Jokowi also said that the Government would try to restore the victims’ rights in a fair and wise manner, without negating a judicial settlement. In addition, the Government will also make serious efforts so that violations of human rights will not occur again in Indonesia in the future. (FID/UN) (EST/LW)