JakartaPost-Jan 13, 2023
Indonesia should have a more active voice in global human rights discourse, despite its principle of political non-alignment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers said on Thursday, citing the country’s silence on the persecution of Muslims in eastern China, among other omissions, as counterproductive to human rights. And while some human rights issues may have been used as political cudgels, activists insisted that this did not give Indonesia an excuse to keep out of such discussions. The statement was made shortly after the release of HRW’s annual report, which pointed to Jakarta’s deciding vote against holding a discussion at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on alleged abuses against the Muslim Uighur minority in China’s Xinjiang region. “Indonesia’s vote against the motion, which failed 19 votes to 17, was crucial. Ukraine later announced its support for the motion, narrowing the final margin to one,” the report reads. At the time, the Foreign Ministry suggested that Indonesia had voted against the discussion because it would have been used as a political weapon against Beijing. China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner. “One way to get around the politicization of these issues is to have a discussion at the UNHCR. […] I really think that failing to use the avenues of accountability would not help at [tackling] the politicization,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director, at a press briefing for the report’s launch. Andreas Harsono, a senior researcher at HRW, said the ministry had used Indonesia’s non-aligned stance to justify its vote at the UN during an audience with the rights group. “Being a non-aligned country does not mean not doing anything.” In line with its “free and active” diplomatic stance, Indonesia has sought to stay neutral amid intensifying geopolitical tensions. Read more at:
