VIVAnews - The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) continue discussing about the Draft Bill on State Secret despite numbers of rejections from various agencies. One of the opposing institutions includes the National Commission of Human Rights.
“The retention period of the Draft Bill is 30 years. This will become a problem when it comes to solve human rights violation case”, Head of the National Commission of Human Rights, Ifdhal Kasim said at the House of Representatives building in Senayan, Jakarta on Thursday, July 2.
He also said it will be a threat to a disclosure of human rights violation cases.
“How could we get relevant info in serious violation cases if the required documents cannot be accessed because of the long retention period,” he said.
In fact, Kasim added, serious human right violation cases were usually related to state policies. Therefore, many public documents, which were needed to analyze a case, would be inaccessible.
“Nowadays, it’s hard enough to solve the human rights cases and it will be harder with the presence of the State Secret Law,” he said.
The retention period of the State Secret Law is set 30 years for 'top secret' issues. As for the ‘confidential’ category, the period is 20 years.
“We suggested to cut the retention period to only 10 years,” Kasim said.
The Draft Bill has been receiving rejections from the people because it was considered as conflicting with the Public’s Freedom of Information Law (KIP) which guarantees people’s right to get information.
--
Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
