Indonesia to Reject UN Recommendation to Scrap Death Penalty

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron said that Indonesia is likely to reject 20 out of 75 recommendation from the United Nations Human Rights Council. “One of which being the scrapping of death penalty,” Nurkhoiron told Tempo yesterday.

The commissioner did not divulge the details about 20 recommendations that would be rejected by the government. He said that they would only be noted by the government. He reasoned that, among others, the nations who made such recommendations did not understand the context of human rights issues faced by Indonesia.

Read: Indonesia Reviews UN Recommendations on LGBT, Death Penalty

The UN Human Rights Council in a universal periodic review (UPR) in May issued 225 recommendations on human rights to Indonesia. The government had immediately accepted 150 recommendations including those relating to the education sector, religious freedom and protection for vulnerable and disabled people. However, 75 recommendations are still being discussed.

The UPR session in Geneva urges Indonesia to scrap death penalty. There are at least 12 recommendations on the issue, including calls for the country to issue a moratorium on death sentence and to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the Indonesian Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-OP2).

The Komnas HAM will continue to talk with the government and civil society to make a decision on the remaining 75 recommendations. “We expect to issue the final decision in early September,” he said. The government plans to announce the result in September 20, which is deadline set by the UN Human Rights Council.

The Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment on Komnas HAM’s statements.

Read: UN Human Rights Council Urges Indonesia to Abolish Death Sentence

Hasan Kleib, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations in Geneva, had said that that the government is unlikely to accept the recommendation to scrap death penalty. “Because it’s still part of positive law in Indonesia,” Hasan said in May.

Director General of Human Rights of the Law and Human Rights Ministry Mualimin Abdi said that death penalty law in the Criminal Code is being revised and is currently being deliberated by the House of Representatives (DPR). “Death penalty has been excluded from main penalty category. It has now become an alternative which implementation must be done prudently,” he said. The Ministry said that 67 people are currently on death row.

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