International community was sparked with the emergence of new serious form of human rights abuses; brought from the past, in 1980s. One of them is torture.
This writing attempts to correct the wrong perception of many Indonesian people and officials that torture is simply an ordinary crime or human rights abuse.
Torture is clearly not a new form of punishment since it was used as a prime penalty by authorities in the medieval times against the outlaws. However, only in 1980s the international community embodied the act into a specific binding legal framework.
In 1984, the UN adopted the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), which came into force in 1987, in order to prohibits torture be committed by state actors or organs. Up to this date the CAT has been ratified by 77 States and signed by 147 States.
According to Article 1 of the CAT, torture means ”act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity…”.
The broad yet comprehensive definition of torture that has been agreed upon by States could be defined as to crystallise the act and to set a limit to which an act can fall under the term of torture. Furthermore, considering the gravity of torture, the prohibition of torture is contained in a wide variety of human rights framework.
For instance, the prohibition is enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, and the African Charter on Human Rights and People’s Rights. All of the conventions allow no derogation from the prohibition of torture.
It can be argued that torture is an extremely dangerous and inhuman act. This notion has been affirmed by many independent and reliable bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former of Yugoslavia.
In fact, the prohibition of torture falls under the cloak of customary of international law which means all States must abide to it. Bearing in mind the level of seriousness of the act of torture which impairing and violating the most basic dignity of individual, it is also a norm of jus cogens. Jus cogens means a peremptory norm that has the highest level of hierarchy of general international law and is not subject to any kind of exception or derogation.
The non-derogation principle on prohibition of torture applies to all form of crimes, including terrorism. The basic idea of this prohibition is to protect both dignity and the physical and mental integrity of an individual.
Having said that torture is one of the serious abuses of human rights recognised by international community it is odd to see a state official impliedly stated torture is not a serious one.
Many reports of reliable and prominent independent human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) which blatantly said that torture has been committed by Indonesian authorities during SBY administration. In reports published in 2008 and June 2010, the HRW stated that majority of cases are involving people from Papua and Maluku who have been the subject of torture committed by either Indonesian police or army.
Furthermore, the UN Committee against Torture in its Concluding Observation on Indonesia’s State Periodical Report (2008) explicitly stated that there are indeed practices of torture and ill-treatment in Indonesia that fall under the CAT framework.
In its conclusion, the UN Committee against Torture urged Indonesia to take immediate steps to prevent torture and ill-treatment being committed in the future and it was very concerned with the local bylaw in Aceh which imposes torture and inhuman punishment through stoning to death and public flogging. In addition, Komnas HAM also affirmed that torture is a gross or serious human rights violation and it exists in Indonesia.
The concluding observation of the UN Committee against Torture and HRW’s reports are undoubtedly the proof that torture is practiced by Indonesian authorities. It is too shame when a high-ranking official who represents the President do not has sufficient reliable information on the number of serious human rights abuses in Indonesia.
The latest instance of torture and ill-treatment are being committed in Papua where alleged TNI members tortured Papuans, which video was uploaded in the YouTube but has been removed and sparked an internationally strong reaction. Despite the origin of the video, if it is proven that torture was committed regardless the perpetrator, a thorough legal probe must be taken.
Even an ordinary people would aware of such information, that torture is a gross human rights violation, since they have been repeatedly discussed by many human rights experts, activists, and organisations. Such wrong statement may lead to a wrong wide picture or perception of human rights situation in Indonesia. Even worse, some people may deem such statement as a denial of human rights protection in Indonesia.
In sum, torture is definitely a serious human rights abuse and it has been acknowledged by international community and based on various reliable reports, torture has been continuously committed by Indonesian authorities.
So, since the international community have acknowledged the gravity and seriousness of torture, does Indonesia still regard it as a regular crime or human rights abuse?
The writer argues that there’s a wrong perception of many Indonesian people and officials in regard to ‘torture’, and yet there is no clear discussion of the legal framework. If you are to argue that torture is a gross human rights violation, you should take into account Law No. 26 Year 2000 and prove that the torture is carried out in a systematic or widespread manner (falls under crimes against humanity). Further, there should also be a discussion of the wrong perception of torture, that is, the interpretation of torture as a mere maltreatment.
@BettyYolanda:
thanks for your inputs on this article. I’m preparing other related writing on this regard.
I think this “torture” means “violence” ?
@Pipi: no, violence is far different from torture. All torture forms are within violence term, however, not all violence acts fall under torture. Please see definition of torture in the article.