Tommy Kurnia, New York City – Indonesia has joined the List of Shame at the United Nations after rejecting a UN resolution on "The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" (R2P).
Indonesia voted "No" during voting which took place on Tuesday May 18.
The List of Shame was released by UN Watch, a group which supports human rights, fights dictatorships and double standards.
In the list, Indonesia stands alongside China, Syria, North Korea, Kirgizstan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Burundi, Belorussia, Eritrea, Bolivia, Russia, Egypt and Cuba.
In total 115 countries supported the resolution including Finland, Australia, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Switzerland and Thailand.
There were also countries that chose to abstain such as Singapore and India.
Indonesia's decision has attracted antipathy from many netizens on Twitter. One of which was a criticism from former House of Representatives (DPR) member and Minister of Sports and Youth, Roy Suryo, who said that Indonesia's vote was heartbreaking, adding that clarification was needed because Indonesia has joined the List of Shame.
Based on a clarification from Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Teuku Faizasyah, Indonesia does not reject the agenda on fighting genocide or crimes against humanity, but Indonesia rejects the changes to the procedures in the resolution.
This is because in 2004 there were regulations on the issue. Faizasyah said it would be better if the existing agenda was optimised.
"Each year the UN General Assembly always discusses the R2P issue under the Follow up of the World Summit 2005 agenda. Indonesia is of the view that the discussions should be strengthened through this agenda and there is no need to create a new agenda (stand alone agenda)", Faizasyah told Liputan6.com.
One of the resolution's sponsors was Croatia, which believes that crimes against humanity are becoming worse so the R2P needs to have a specific agenda. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs however says that this is unnecessary.
"Ideally the discussions in the forum should be enriched without having to make a new agenda", said Faizasyah. "It should be focused there".
Nevertheless, Indonesia will now continue to follow the R2P in accordance with the vote.
"Although the majority [of countries] agreed to the resolution, Indonesia will continue to be active discussing the R2P issue", said Faizasyah.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Indonesia Masuk List of Shame PBB Akibat Tolak Resolusi Genosida".]
