Jayapura, Jubi – The Papua Legislative Council’s Special Group urged President Joko Widodo to immediately issue a Presidential Regulation on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Papua.
Special group chairman John NR Gobai said the presidential regulation would support the disclosure of various cases of alleged past human rights violations and the reconciliation between Papua and the Indonesian government.
“To this day, the commission has not been established. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD once encouraged the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Bill to be included in the 2020 National Legislation Program. Unfortunately, until now there has been no presidential regulation to form the team,” said John Gobai on Thursday, September 22, 2022.
Gobai said several countries had formed commissions like this, such as in South Africa and Timor Leste. In Indonesia, Gobai said, recognition of human rights became stronger post-reformation with the regulation of human rights in the 1945 Constitutional Amendment and MPR Regulation XVII/MPR/1998 on Human Rights, which attached a Human Rights Charter.
This was followed by the establishment of Law No. 39/1999 on Human Rights, Law No. 26/2000 on Human Rights Courts, and the establishment of a national-level Truth and Reconciliation Commission through Law No. 27/2004 on Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which unfortunately annulled by the Constitutional Court.
“In fact, many human rights violations that occurred before 2000 must be resolved with the help of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, namely the 1965 incident, the Talangsari incident, and Papua,” said Gobai.
Gobai said that in the plenary discussion of the 2019 revised Papua Provincial Budget, the council should have ratified the draft special regional regulations on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The draft has been discussed with the Legal Bureau of the Papua Provincial Government and publicly consulted in five customary areas.
“However, the ratification was postponed because the regulation on Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the central government’s authority,” said John NR Gobai. (*)
