"The fact that Indonesia was elected with the biggest number of votes from UN members (184 out of the 191 votes cast) is an indication of the international world`s acknowledgment of our efforts to promote human rights protection both in the region or in international forums," the minister said here on Saturday.
Marty also said membership in UN Human Rights Council was a chance for Indonesia to play a more active role in promoting human rights protection in the world.
Indonesia had been a member of the UN Human Rights Council twice in the past, namely in the periods 2006-2007 and 2007-2010.
Last April 6, a representative from Indonesia read out the government`s voluntary pledges and commitments if the country was accepted as a UN Human Rights Council member for the period 2011-2014.
In its pledges Indonesia would continue to strengthen its human rights observance mechanisms at national, provincial, district and municipal levels while also improving the level of coordination among government authorities in the spirit of strengthening human rights enforcement.
Indonesia also promised to continue to strengthen the work of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights for the promotion and protection of human rights in the region and continue to work and fully cooperate with United Nations human rights mechanisms.
Up till now, the council has 46 members, namely Angola, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway and Pakistan.
Other members are Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay and Zambia.(*)
(T.A051/HAJM/a014)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
