The Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is seeking UNESCO Jakarta’s assistance in strengthening and mainstreaming the human rights agenda in the country.

Both parties will work more closely towards their shared common goals with key focus areas include freedom of expression, media freedom, artistic freedom, human-right based analysis of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the rights of persons with disabilities.

Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said both sides inked the renewed memorandum of understanding recently to reaffirm commitment at a critical moment where mainstreaming Human Rights is needed more than ever.

For 73 years, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been a global beacon–shining a light for dignity and well-being.

Unfortunately, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened pre-existing divides, vulnerabilities, inequalities, including fault-lines in Human Rights, with a vicious cycle of violations across the globe, according to UNESCO Jakarta.

“Right to health, right to information, workers’ rights, and freedom of expression, assembly and association are indispensable, particularly in times of crisis to ensure the dignity of all,” its director Mohamed Djelid said.

The institution and UNESCO formalised the cooperation for the first time in 2017 to monitor the implementation of SDGs from the Human Rights perspective.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK