Minister Of Human Rights: Prisoners Can Amnesti Participate In Human Rights Education To Be More Humane

Menteri Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) Natalius Pigai di Lapas Kelas I Cipinang, Jakarta, Rabu (8/1/2024). ANTARA/Bagus Ahmad Rizaldi.

JAKARTA - Human Rights Minister (HAM) Natalius Pigai said prisoners who will be granted amnesty must follow the education of knowledge about human rights so that they are more humane when free and return to society.

According to him, the people who become convicts come from various cases, ranging from drug cases, persecution, to murder. Therefore, he considered the legal convicts to have a counter-human rights mindset.

"So the ministry as the government has a responsibility, so we prevent, protect," said Natalius while visiting the Cipinang Class I Correctional Institution (Lapas), Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 8.

Before returning to the community, he said that prisoners who get amnesty must know their rights and obligations as citizens.

After knowing the human rights values, the prisoners who received the amnesty were able to integrate themselves to help maintain security and order.

Natalius visited the Cipinang Class I Prison to check the readiness of the facility to provide human rights education for prisoners who will get amnesty. In the prison, it is projected that there are around 500 inmates who have criteria for getting amnesty.

He explained that the criteria for prisoners who can get amnesty are narcotics convicts, but not dealers, vulnerable groups, women and children, to prisoners who are classified as political prisoners for criticizing the government.

"After that there was Reserve Command (Komcad) training, they became part of the universal defense, maintained order a lot, became the people involved to guard," he said.

Previously, Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas said President Prabowo would grant amnesty to a number of inmates, ranging from narcotics users to cases related to Papua.

The granting of amnesty is carried out in addition to reducing excess capacity in correctional institutions, as well as on humanitarian considerations.

According to data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections (Imipas), there are around 44,000 prisoners who meet the criteria to be proposed to obtain amnesty.

The Minister of Law said that in principle President Prabowo had approved the granting of the amnesty.