Solving Past Human Rights Violations Lacks Political Will: SETARA Institute

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Setara Institute believes that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is merely showing a sympathetic mask for the victims and their families of severe human rights violations. They are calling for the President to thoroughly investigate these past crimes. 

Setara argues that the lack of seriousness is evident in the signing of the Presidential Instruction on the Implementation of Recommendations for the Non-Judicial Resolution of Serious Human Rights Violations (PPHAM) and the Presidential Decree on the Monitoring Team for the Implementation of Recommendations for the Non-Judicial Resolution of Serious Human Rights Violations, on 15 March.

"From the introduction of the PPHAM Team in August 2022, the judicial pathway that was promised to be accommodated was in fact only a lip service," said Setara Institute Law and Constitutional Researcher Sayyidatul Insiyah in his press statement on March 16.

According to Sayyidatul, until now, there has been no significant progress in resolving cases of severe human rights violations. Instead of abolishing impunity of the actors believed to be behind the violations,  the truth has not been disclosed by the state, he elaborated. 

“The government tends to lack the political will to really fulfill the demands for justice as mandated by the Law on the Human Rights Court," he said.

Setara Institute Senior Researcher Ismail Hasani added that another aspect that is far more fundamental is the right to truth and the right to justice for the victims, as part of the concept of transitional justice that should have sparked the political will to actually investigate the dark past in Indonesia’s history. 

ADE RIDWAN YANDWIPUTRA 

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