Jakarta, 30 December 2021 — The Commission for Disappeared Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) welcome the re-election of Mrs. Wahyuningrum as Indonesian Representative for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) for the period 2022 – 2024. Indonesia’s representative to AICHR holds a strategic role considering the nation’s significant influence in the region and its preparations towards becoming the Chair of ASEAN in 2023.
The human rights situation in ASEAN, including in Indonesia, has experienced significant setbacks, particularly in terms of shrinking democratic space and threats to freedom of expression, as well as impunity for various gross human rights violations. The monitoring report conducted by CIVICUS in 2021 shows that civil liberties in ASEAN countries range from “impeded” to “closed.”
Although AICHR Indonesia has set its priority on critical human rights issues for 2022, the elected Indonesian Representative needs to ensure that the agenda carried out since the previous period is given adequate attention. This includes discourse on effective remedies for victims of gross human rights violations and protection of civil liberties including freedom of expression and opinion. Additionally, attention must also be paid to the humanitarian crises and lack of humanitarian access in Myanmar following the February 2021 coup, the inadequate protection for the Rohingya as well as the prolonged violence and human rights violations in Papua. All of these must be subject to the utmost attention from the Indonesian Representative to AICHR.
However, we regret that the selection process of the AICHR Indonesia Representative lacked transparency. From the onset of the selection process, the number of applicants assessed by the selection committee was narrowed down to just 5 candidates. This remained in place until the Indonesian Representative for AICHR 2022-2024 was elected. At all stages of the selection process, there was no public participation from civil society.
If we refer to the AICHR election for the previous period, the public had opportunities to engage with the candidates and hold open consultation on each candidate’s vision and mission. Now, with all the stages of selection closed to the public, civil society did not have the opportunity to provide inputs on each candidate’s track record, including monitoring the due diligence process held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not issued any public statement.
On December 7, KontraS sent an official complaint to the Public Information Commission, objecting to the non-transparency of the selection process. According to Article 22, paragraph 7 of the Act on Public Information Disclosure, the reported party has ten days to respond to the information requested by the complainant. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only responded to the letter on December 30 and still failed to provide the requested information. Instead, the Ministry diverted responsibility of providing the information to procedural and technical administrations.
The non-transparent election process represents a severe shortcoming on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially considering that the position of the Indonesian Representative for AICHR is strategic and vital for the promotion and protection of human rights. Furthermore, considering that Indonesia will hold a position of ASEAN leadership in 2023, inputs and involvement of civil society, especially in discussing the situation of human rights both at the national and regional level, are crucial.
We ask the elected Indonesian Representative for AICHR to ensure active participation in safeguarding efforts to fulfill and protect urgent issues on human rights that have so far been neglected. In this process, we hope that spaces for dialogue and meetings with civil society remain open. This is particularly important for discussing the priority agenda and work programs of AICHR given the human rights situation in Indonesia and the region, as well as to ensure public participation in the future work of AICHR.
We also encourage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold meetings with civil society as soon as possible to provide official explanations on matters that have not been publicly disclosed.
For more information, please contact:
Auliya Rayyan (KontraS) rae@kontras.org
Cornelius Hanung (CIVICUS) cornelius.hanung@civicus.org
Putri Kanesia (AJAR) pkanesia@asia-ajar.org