United Nations News Centre - Indonesia must tackle rising discrimination and violence, says UN human rights chief

Navi Pillay

UN-news,-- 13 November 2012 – Indonesia must tackle increasing levels of discrimination and violence as well as translate its commitments into domestic law if the young democracy is to improve the protection of human rights for all its citizens, a top United Nations official said today. 

“Indonesia has a rich culture and history of diversity and tolerance. At the same time, it risks losing this if firm action is not taken to address increasing levels of violence and hatred towards religious minorities and narrow and extremist interpretations of Islam,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital, Jakarta, Ms. Pillay commended the South-east Asian nation for its high rate of ratification of international human rights treaties. It is party to eight core human rights conventions. 

At the same time, during her talks with the Government, the High Commissioner stressed the importance of translating Indonesia’s international human rights obligations into domestic law.

“I have seen that this process has begun in many areas and encourage the Government to continue with this and resist any back-sliding in legislative standards at the local or national levels,” she stated.

She added that Indonesia remains a young democracy, which has suffered from decades of military rule, and still has to strengthen accountability mechanisms aimed at identifying responsibilities for past and present human rights violations.

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