KontraS Human Rights Day Notes: We Are In The Shadow Of Authoritarianism

JAKARTA - The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) has given a critical note to the Joko Widodo administration on World Human Rights Day which falls today.

KontraS coordinator, Fatia Maulidiyanti, said that the government's policy this year is increasingly resembling the authoritarian New Order era.

"We are in the shadow of authoritarianism. The government's discriminatory policies this year have taken us back and back to the New Order era, which in the end will injure human rights itself," said Fatia in a webinar discussion on Thursday. , 10 December.

During the past year, KontraS noted that recognition, protection and fulfillment of human rights were increasingly threatened, seen from the forms of human rights violations that occurred in the field.

These violations fall into the categories of civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights. State legitimacy against these human rights violations appears in various forms, both in the nature of direct action and omission.

Fatia explained several cases of human rights violations. One of them is the question of the ratification of Law Number 11 of the Year on Job Creation which has received many rejections.

"The Job Creation Law was passed by the government secretly without involving public participation, no public consultation, and also resulted in losses to the community itself," said Fatia.

"Especially with regard to economic recovery which in the end will also have an impact on environmental sustainability as well as the sustainability of the work of human rights defenders in the natural resources sector," he continued.

Apart from that, said Fatia, the government did not appear to have the will to resolve past gross human rights violations. This is reinforced by the Attorney General's statement which states that the Trisakti, Semanggi I, and Semanggi II tragedies were not serious human rights violations.

"The statement is a bad record, reflecting the government's unwillingness to resolve gross human rights violations that were stated in the presidential and vice presidential campaign promises," he added.