Jakarta – The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) believes that the 2027 budget allocation is not sufficient to carry out the institution's duties as mandated by law, one of which is investigating cases of alleged gross human rights violations.
In fact, the budget allocation for investigating alleged gross human rights cases is 0 rupiah in 2027.
This was conveyed by the Komnas HAM Chairperson Anis Hidayah in a meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission XIII at the parliament building in Jakarta on Tuesday September 1.
Initially, Hidayah explained that in 2027, Komnas HAM and the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) were to receive a budget allocation of 133.5 billion rupiah.
Of this amount, the allocation for Komnas HAM was to be 94.23 billion rupiah, while Komnas Perempuan was to receive 39.30 billion rupiah.
"This budget is the same as the indicative ceiling for Komnas HAM in 2027 with the budget posture remaining the same, namely there is no budget allocation for management support program activities, either at Komnas HAM or at Komnas Perempuan", said Hidayah.
Hidayah explained a number of Komnas HAM activities based on the budget ceiling. First, handling complaints of human rights violations involving around 300 cases with a budget of 461 million rupiah.
Then proactive complaints. According to Hidayah, this activity is usually carried out three to five times a year to reach people who do not have or have limited access to Komnas HAM.
"...'Alhamdulillah' this is 0 rupiah for next year", he said.
Some of the activities that did not receive a budget were investigations into cases of alleged serious human rights violations. For three cases they also received a budget allocation of 0 rupiah.
Activities to observe the human rights situation for certain issues as well as handling of complaints and managing archives of alleged human rights violation cases also did not receive a budget.
Hidayah said that the disproportionate 2027 budget ceiling would have an impact on several things, including that Komnas HAM would not be able to handle all complaints of alleged human rights violations.
"The impact we will face is related to the budget posture of the disproportionate 2027 budget ceiling. The first of course is that Komnas HAM cannot handle all complaints of alleged human rights violations, of which we receive an average of 3,000 complaints every year", he said.
Then proactive complaints in various regions also cannot be pursued. Then, limited outreach, monitoring and field mediation results in the handling of cases of human rights violations that loose the depth of factual verification and timeliness in processing emergency situations.
"[We will] not be able to investigate incidents of alleged gross human rights violations in cases that have been determined at Komnas HAM plenary sessions", he said.
Hidayah took the opportunity to ask for an additional budget for both Komnas HAM and Komnas Perempuan.
"The additional [budget] that we want to propose for 2027 for Komnas HAM is 99.3 billion rupiah for Komnas HAM and 14.9 billion rupiah for Komnas Perempuan. So in total what we are proposing for Komnas HAM and Komnas Perempuan is 247 billion rupiah", he said. (yoa/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Anggaran Rp0, Komnas HAM Tak Bisa Selidiki Kasus Pelanggaran HAM Berat".]
