Discourse On The Threes Articles Of Human Rights Protection At The Ministry Of Law And Human Rights, Workers Unions Ask To Be Involved

Illustration. Demonstration workers in front of the DPR Building, Jakarta, Tuesday, September 6. One of their demands is to lower the price of fuel. (Nailin-VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) plans to create a human rights protection task force in the business environment. Responding to this, the trade union asked that the trade federation be involved in its preparation.

"In the task force, we really really hope to be involved. However, this does not exist. Okay, we are still waiting for what will be produced (the task force) in the future," said Royanto during a discussion entitled Protect Workers' Rights online in Jakarta, Monday, April 29, which was confiscated by Antara.

Royanto said that his party really appreciated the President's efforts in issuing Presidential Decree Number 60 of 2023 concerning National, Business and Human Rights Strategies dated September 26, 2023.

This effort is considered by Royanto to be the good faith of the government in ensuring the protection of workers' rights which are often seized in every company.

He also appreciated the Ministry of Law and Human Rights for following up on the Presidential Decree by creating a task force at the national and regional levels.

This effort, he said, could make all companies want to pay attention to the rights of their employees because they will be directly supervised by the task force.

However, Royanto considered the involvement of unions in the task force necessary because they were closer to employees and knew the conditions on the ground.

With the involvement of trade unions in the task force, he hopes that human rights protection by employees can be more targeted.

"Because after all, when we talk about business, the closest thing is workers. So why weren't we involved?" said Royanto.

Previously, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights would form a task force to protect human rights in the national and regional business sectors.

"In accordance with this Presidential Decree, a national task force and regional task force will be formed. The national task force is chaired by the Minister of Law and Human Rights as well as members of the relevant ministries and institutions," said Director of Human Rights Cooperation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Harniati in the discussion of the same discussion event.

Harniati explained that the national task force will have its own agenda in carrying out enforcement in the business environment.

The agenda, he said, is in accordance with the realm of institutions or ministries invited to cooperate with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

For the regional level task force, he continued, it will be chaired by each governor in each province.

"The governor will involve the head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights as well as the head of the relevant agencies, including the community under the non-governmental organization in the regions," said Harniati.

These efforts were made by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, he said, so that human rights protection for workers and the community could go hand in hand at the national to regional levels.

Harniati also said that the work program carried out at the national level would be in line with the task force in the region. This is so that human rights protection efforts from upstream to downstream can be aligned so that there is no policy imbalance.