Yusril: RI akan Bersikap Netral sebagai Presiden Dewan HAM PBB

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Imipas Yusril Ihza Mahendra (ANTARA/Agatha Olivia Victoria)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Indonesia, as President of the UN Human Rights Council 2026, will be neutral in responding to various human rights issues and reporting to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Indonesia will handle it seriously without prejudice and will really act objectively and based on international human rights instruments and other international legal provisions," said Yusril as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 14.

He assessed that it was very reasonable for Indonesia to be elected as President of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) based on the agreement of the Asia-Pacific group.

The reason, he said, is that Indonesia's participation in human rights issues at the national level is very large and respected by all parties.

The Coordinating Minister also expressed gratitude that Indonesia was finally elected for the first time as President of the UN Human Rights Council.

He explained that before the UN Human Rights Council was formed in 2006, Indonesia had actually participated actively in the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In fact, in 2025, continued he, Indonesia's senior diplomat, Makarim Wibisono, was once the Chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission.

At that time, he said Indonesia was facing a very difficult situation due to the many international pressures, especially regarding the Santa Cruz case, the East Timor case, the '98 case, the Ambon riots, the Poso riots, and others.

"At that time, as the Minister of Justice, I consistently answered all questions to convince the Human Rights Council and in the end everything could be overcome after we managed to build human rights instruments and instruments here," he said.

Yusril argues that Indonesia has managed to build a fairly significant human rights field since the time of the second President of the Republic of Indonesia, Soeharto, namely with the establishment of the National Commission (Komnas) HAM, which was continued by the third President of the Republic of Indonesia, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, with the issuance of the Human Rights Law.

Likewise, in the era of the 4th President of the Republic of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), he continued, the Ministry of Human Rights was formed which was integrated into the Ministry of Justice until the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

"Recently, President Prabowo Subianto also formed the Ministry of Human Rights under the leadership of Mr. Natalius Pigai," said Yusril.

As of January, Indonesia officially served as President of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 period.

The post of President of the UN Human Rights Council was held by Ambassador Sidharto Reza Suryodipuro, who is the Indonesian Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. He replaced Swiss Ambassador Jürg Lauber.

As president, Indonesia will chair three regular sessions of the Human Rights Council (February, June, and September 2026) and oversee the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism to review the human rights records of UN member states.